Max Zajack's life is cheap rooms, dead-end jobs, and suicidal fantasies until he meets the alluring and mysterious Olivia Aphrodite, and everything goes to hell.

Max is a struggling musician and wannabe writer. His life is in a rut until one night, while playing a gig at a local club, he gazes out into the crowd and sees Olivia. Before long, they are sharing a bed and host of dark vices that begin to consume them. Their love turns toxic, sending them spiraling downward toward the inevitable. Violently romantic, viscerally honest, Hating Olivia is the story of two loners whose obsessive love brings them to the edge of destruction.

Mark SaFranko is an American author, playwright, artist, and musician. He was cited in The Best American Mystery Stories 2000 and has been nominated for two Pushcart Prizes. He is the author of five published novels—Hating Olivia, Lounge Lizard, God Bless America, Hopler's Statement, and The Favor—and has written dozens more. He lives with his wife and son in New Jersey.