Book folks - people who still actually read - may be aware of a first-time author named Edan Lepucki, whose dystopian novel "California" has become a perhaps unexpected bestseller.

It seems Lepucki shares a publisher, the Hatchette Book Group, with television host/writer Stephen Colbert. Now, Amazon.com is in a heated dispute with Hatchette, and the sales giant is reportedly using tactics like artificial purchase delays on Hatchette products. In protest, Colbert went on a televised rant about the injustice - and held up a copy of "California" and urged his audience to order the book in defiance of Amazon's policies.

Clearly, Colbert enjoyed "California," wherein protagonists Cal and Frida abandon the ruins of Los Angeles and seek safety in a paranoid survivalist community. Reviews of the book, which had, for a first novel, a nice print run of 12,000 copies, had been excellent in any case. But now, with Colbert's help, "California" and Lepucki are exploding in huge fashion.

The author, graciously aware of her good fortune, will appear Friday at an author's luncheon in Mystic's Bank Square Books.

- RICK KOSTER

Edan Lepucki,

1 p.m. Friday, Bank Square Books, 53 West Main St., Mystic; author's luncheon and book signing; free attendance, $10 lunch, $30 for lunch and signed copy, RSVP required; (860) 536-3795.