CAPE ELIZABETH — Maine author Kevin St. Jarre, is a Cape Elizabeth resident who grew up in Madawaska. His latest novel, “Aliens, Drywall, and a Unicycle,” is available for preorder today either online or through a favorite bookstore, and will be in stores everywhere on Nov. 6.

The novel is the story of Tom Tibbets, who takes a job at a small weekly newspaper in Portage, New Hampshire, and an apartment in the old Cooper Building where the residents form a kaleidoscope of the odd, interesting and bizarre.

One believes in aliens, another is a pothead philosopher, while still others play with illegal explosives for fun. A vegan pacifist lives there, along with nomadic born-again Christians, a schizophrenic unicycle rider and a mysterious wise man.

At first, Tom feels like the only “normal” person in the building. However, he soon believes that the very people he at first considered unstable and strange have become a lens through which he gets a new look at himself and everything else. But when something happens that leaves the tenant community changed and off-balance, Tom comes to wonder if his karmic weight, added to the Cooper building, has thrown off the bizarre status-quo energetic equilibrium of the place. In the end, “Aliens, Drywall, and a Unicycle” is the story of growth from delusion to examination to awareness of what is truly important in life.

St. Jarre, who also teaches and works as a print journalist, said, “These types of stories where the primary character takes stock of his life, and takes a hard look at himself, are always about growth. To follow that flawed person as he learns to modify his own truth, and to meet and experience all the other people in his new orbit, has always been fun for me.”

More information can be found at the publisher’s website at https://encirclepub.com or the author’s page at https://www.facebook.com/kstjarre.