Boxer, Beetle - Softcover

Ned Beauman

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0340998415 ISBN 13: 9780340998410

Publisher: Sceptre, 2011

Synopsis

This is a novel for people with breeding. Only people with the right genes and the wrong impulses will find its marriage of bold ideas and deplorable characters irresistible. It is a novel that engages the mind while satisfying those that crave the thrill of a chase. There are riots and sex. There is love and murder. There is Darwinism and Fascism, nightclubs, invented languages and the dangerous bravado of youth. And there are lots of beetles. It is clever. It is distinctive. It is entertaining. We hope you are too. Shortlisted for The Guardian First Book Award. Named one of the dozen most promising new writers in Britain by John Mullan.

About this title

About the Author

Ned Beauman was born in 1985 and lives in London. He has written forDazed & Confused, AnOtherand theGuardian. His debut novel, BOXER, BEETLE was shortlisted for the Guardian First Book Award and the Desmond Elliot Prize, and won the Writers' Guild Award for Best Fiction Book. Ned Beauman was picked byThe Culture Showas one of the 12 Best New British Writers in 2011. His second novel, THE TELEPORTATION ACCIDENT was longlisted for the Man Booker Prize 2012.

Review

'This first novel is as oddball and rambunctious as it sounds. It's also funny, raw and stylish.' * New York Times * Beauman writes with wit and verve. * Carl Wilkinson, Financial Times * The scenes set in the past are reminiscent of Evelyn Waugh's Decline and Fall in their grotesque stupidity and amorality, and the present-day characters are as ruthless as any in modern noir fiction. It also makes a persuasive argument for the moral repercussions of Darwinism and the absurdities of fascism and repressed homosexuality, but that's just three aspects of a witty, fascinating and romping read. * James Medd, Word * I can only gape in admiration at a new writing force and wonder what he's going to produce next. * Victoria Moore, Daily Mail * An edifying treatise on the absurdity of eugenics and racial theories, and probably the most politically incorrect novel of the decade - as well as the funniest . . . Monstrous misfits with ugly motives are beautifully rendered in a novel where Beauman's scrupulous research is deftly threaded through serious themes in a laugh-out-loud-on-the-train history lesson. * Anna Swan, Sunday Telegraph * The 1930s are wonderfully evoked, and the historical sections of the novel are taut, thematically rich and extremely well written . . . it takes real skill to make a tragic hero out of the five-foot, nine-toed alcoholic Seth Roach . . . it's clear from this compelling debut that Beauman can perform the complicated paradoxical trick required of the best 21st-century realist novelists: to take an old and predictable structure and allow it to produce new and unpredictable connections. * Scarlett Thomas, Guardian * Clever, inventive, intelligently structured, genre-spanning, as magpie-like in its references as any graphic novel, and above all, an enjoyable, high-octane read through a fascinating period in history. * Rob Sharp, Independent on Sunday * Beauman skips with panache between his dreadful version of the present and the macabre absurdities of a period when cock-eyed science and rabid anti-Semitism provided a toxic cocktail for the upper classes. His killer irony evokes early Evelyn Waugh, and his lateral take on reality Will Self at his unsettling best. This is humour that goes beyond black, careening off into regions of darkness to deliver the funniest new book I've read in a year or two. * Pete Carty, Independent * Not one for the easily shocked, young scribe Ned Beauman subjects the reader to a parade of ghoulish events and ghastly theories throughout his dazzling first novel Boxer, Beetle . . . deeply researched and punchily written, this is an utterly unique work that marks the London-based author out as an exciting new voice in fiction. * The List * A witty, erudite debut . . . thick with trivia, it confidently takes on British fascism, the Thule society, anti-Semitism, atonal composition, sex, and the class system . . . An articulate and original romp . . . often gobsmackingly smutty. Beauman is one to watch. * Katie Allen, Time Out * Dazzling . . . As in PG Wodehouse and the early Martin Amis the tone is mischievous and impudent without being merely jaunty or wacky . . . in Erksine and Broom we have two endlessly curious heroes whose thoughts are fascinating even at their silliest. * Leo Robson, Express * Its ambitions are enormous, in terms of the range, energy and quality of the writing * Literary Review * Debut bout is a real knockout . . . dazzling * Daily Express * Exuberant . . . There are politics, black comedy, experimentation and wild originality - and I haven't even got to the beetles. Terrific. * The Times * Frighteningly assured * Katie Guest, Independent on Sunday * Ned Beauman's astonishingly assured debut starts as it means to go on: confident, droll, and not in the best of taste . . . Many first novels are judged promising. Boxer, Beetle arrives fully formed: original, exhilarating and hugely enjoyable. * Peter Parker, Sunday Times * A rambunctious, deftly-plotted delight of a debut * Observer * An astonishing debut...buzzing with energy, fizzing with ideas, intoxicating in its language, Boxer, Beetle is sexy, intelligent and deliriously funny * Jake Arnott * an enjoyable confection; witty, ludicrous and entertaining * James Urquhart, Financial Times * a piece of staggeringly energetic intellectual slapstick . . . it's crammed with strange, funny and interesting things * Sam Leith, Guardian *

Edition details

• Publisher: Sceptre
• Publication date: 2011
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0340998415
• ISBN 13: 9780340998410
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 272