Falling Sideways

(Paperback)

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Description

There seems to be no shortage of business at the Tank, a high-profile firm in Copenhagen. There are meetings to attend, memos to write, colleagues to undermine. But when the Tank's nefarious CEO announces a round of downsizing, everyone becomes exponentially more concerned about... whatever it is they're doing. Top executive Frederick Breathwaite is frantically trying to ensure a stable future for his son, while the boy's greatest fear is that his future might resemble his father's absurd present. Meanwhile, Harald Jaeger is lost in amorous fantasies of his female colleagues, but has still managed to catch the CEO's eye - as a possible replacement for Breathwaite...

Reviews

A fascinating account of the backstabbing and time-serving which take place in the Tank, a globally successful Danish firm ... Surprisingly touching ... Kennedy offers a welcome, if tentative, message of hope * Michael Arditti, Daily Mail *
The finest novel I have read in many years ... immensely compelling and beautifully written * Alain de Botton *
This witty, dark, Franzen- style tale of a downsizing company features backstabbing execs who betray each other and their own families ... One for anyone who has ever had a job they hate * Viv Groskop, Red *
Falling Sideways is that rarest of commodities in American literary fiction, a novel about men and women at work; it is part satire and part drama, and it is very smart * Washington Post *
A quietly impressive novel that has much to say about the way we live and work now * Ben Felsenburg, Metro *
Kennedy gives us the complacency, the envy, the flirtations and the sycophantic laughter that will be familiar to anyone who has worked beneath strip-lighting ... touches on the contemporary moment with a deft precision. The fear of losing one's job, the rejection of the corporate world by the young and the treatment of immigrants by different generations are all of the utmost timeliness * Financial Times *

Author Bio

Thomas E. Kennedy was born in New York. He is the author of eight novels, as well as several collections of short stories and essays, and has won numerous awards including the Eric Hoffer Award, the Pushcart Prize, the O. Henry Prize and the National Magazine Award. He teaches creative writing at Fairleigh Dickinson University, and is the father of two grown children. He has lived in Copenhagen for over two decades.