Thomas Pynchon’s new novel Shadow Ticket to land on October 7, his first in 12 years

One month shy of his 88th birthday, Thomas Pynchon is set to publish his first book in 12 years.

Shadow Ticket is scheduled for October 7, Penguin Press announced on April 9.

You could call the book, set in the American city of Milwaukee in 1932, Pynchon-esque.

“Hicks McTaggart, a one-time strike-breaker turned private eye, thinks he’s found job security until he gets sent out on what should be a routine case, locating and bringing back the heiress of a Wisconsin cheese fortune who’s taken a mind to go wandering,” the publisher’s announcement reads in part.

“Before he knows it, he’s been shanghaied onto a transoceanic liner, ending up eventually in Hungary where there’s no shoreline, a language from some other planet, and enough pastry to see any cop well into retirement – and of course no sign of the runaway heiress he’s supposed to be chasing.”

The famously expansive and press-averse author has not released a new book since Bleeding Edge in 2013.