London and the South-East

(Paperback)

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Description

A stunning debut novel set in the murky worlds of telephone salesmen and supermarket shelf-stackers by one of Granta's Best of Young British Novelists 2013. Paul Rainey, an ad salesman, perceives dimly through a fog of psychoactive substances his dissatisfaction with his life- professional, sexual, weekends, the lot. He only wishes there was something he could do about it. And 'something' seems to fall into his lap when a meeting with an old friend and fellow salesman, Eddy Jaw, leads to the offer of a new job. But when this offer turns out to be as misleading as Paul's sales patter, his life and that of his family are transformed in ways very much more peculiar than he ever thought possible.

Reviews

One of the great English novels of recent years, a work of sublime literary realism, and a blackly comic meditation on the sins and sorrows of modernity -- Rachel Cusk
Wonderfully dark * The Times *
A terrific debut, written in a present tense which flashes every so often into the past - a trick which Szalay pulls off with confidence... a tense and compelling read * Independent *
A funny, painful, graphic demonstration that our job is a crucial part of our identity.... It's compulsively readable * Independent on Sunday *
Szalay's satire is sharp, though his depictions of rush-hour raise the blood pressure to levels that are not advisable -- Nicholas Lezard * Guardian *

Author Bio

David Szalay is the author of four previous works of fiction- Spring, The Innocent, London and the South-East, for which he was awarded the Betty Trask and Geoffrey Faber Memorial prizes, and All That Man Is, for which he was awarded the Gordon Burn prize and Plimpton Prize for Fiction, and shortlisted for the Man Booker prize. Born in Canada, he grew up in London, and now lives in Budapest.