Martin Hutchins had three things going for him: a worthless degree from UNLV, five thousand dollars from the craps table, and a case of Royal Herpes from a Contessa he met in a casino parking lot at 5 a.m.

That last one is what got him into trouble.

Somewhere between Las Vegas, Madrid, Rome, and the mythical Sultanate of Baboob — a landlocked North African kingdom where all men are named Mucho and all women are named Fatima — Martin "Pig" Hutchins stopped being a lovable douchebag and became something else entirely. What, exactly, is harder to explain. Something involving a blood debt, a golden brooch, a Hawaiian ukulele band, two predatory British TEFL students, and the most important herpes in the world.

The Nuns of Baboob is the origin story of the Sultanate of Baboob — told sideways, through the eyes of the last person anyone would choose to tell it. It's a travel novel about a man who goes looking for nothing and finds an ancient civilization. A satirical adventure about bureaucracy, blood debts, and belonging. And a comic history of how 150 kidnapped Sicilian nuns, a group of Andorran smugglers, and one very clever Old Man of the Mountain accidentally built one of the world's most fascinating nations.

Baoism. The Royal Herpes. The Baboobie. The capital city of Turban. Em-Mucho himself.

It all starts here.

For readers of comic fiction, satirical adventure, and anyone who's ever gotten in a limo they shouldn't have.