The Man with the Big Red Balloon

Sharp and enchanting, Garrett Baldwin’s The Man with the Big Red Balloon is a romping story of when good intentions meet impossible greed and a biting political satire of today’s political world.

Apple Valley is a pristine, bucolic wonderland shining with the promise of prosperity. Life is as simple as Josie’s prized apple pies sold at the town’s very first bakery. Farmers harvest plentiful apples, businesses swing open their doors, and life flourishes. Apple Valley is a growing economic powerhouse built on the ideals of productivity, education, and accountability. But one morning, the town’s founder fails to rise again, and the town must continue on without him. Determined to uphold his legacy, the town pushes forward trading silver, selling wares, and holding each other accountable in a place where freedom is championed.

Here, harvests are plentiful and businesses prosper. But when Arlo Greydon arrives on the heels of the town’s economic boom, he doesn’t see a fruitful world. All Arlo he sees is excess. Fairness—Arlo argues—is what Apple Valley needs most. The power hungry idealist believes that each farmer, each business owner, each person should have the same amount of food and the same amount of silver. To help him sell his brilliant vision of fairness, he invites a mysterious, charismatic stranger—only known as “the Man”—to help him. And when the Man stokes fear with news of a fresh crisis—that the town is running out of air—the people submit to Arlo’s solution to increase taxes and government control of their lives. . . all for the children, of course. 

“A libertarian’s laugh out loud riot meets a free-market romp” Jeff Joseph, Modern Trader