London and the South-East
  • Published: 15 April 2009
  • ISBN: 9780099515890
  • Imprint: Vintage
  • Format: Paperback
  • Pages: 352
  • RRP: $24.99

London and the South-East

Formats & editions
EBook
3 May 2013
Paperback
15 Apr 2009
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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.

'One of the great English novels of recent years' Rachel Cusk

'Compulsively readable' Independent on Sunday

'Superb' Financial Times

A discontented ad salesman finds his life changed, in the wryly funny and addictive novel from Booker-shortlisted David Szalay

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.
  • Published: 15 April 2009
  • ISBN: 9780099515890
  • Imprint: Vintage
  • Format: Paperback
  • Pages: 352
  • RRP: $24.99
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About the author

David Szalay

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.

portrait photo of David Szalay

Also by David Szalay

Flesh
Turbulence
All That Man Is
Spring
The Innocent
See all

Praise for London and the South-East

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

Brilliant... funny, painful, graphic... Compulsively readable

Independent on Sunday

A wonderfully dark debut... A strikingly poetic glimpse into the soul of the faceless, big creatures into whose armpits one has so often been squashed on the central line

The Times

This is David Szalay's first novel, and startlingly good... A terrific debut... A tense and compelling read

Independent

Superb... Riveting

Financial Times

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

Szalay's satire is sharp, though his depictions of rush-hour raise the blood pressure to levels that are not advisable

Nicholas Lezard, Guardian

This is David Szalay's first novel, and it's very, very good...it has a whiff of The Office...Superb

Johanna Thomas-Corr, Scotsman

It's very, very good

William Leith, Evening Standard

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

Wonderfully dark

The Times