Phone - Softcover

Self, Will

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0802129218 ISBN 13: 9780802129215

Publisher: Grove Press, 2019

Synopsis

The final volume in a trilogy beginning with Umbrella and followed by Shark, Phone tells the story of two men: Zack Busner and Jonathan De’Ath. Busner is a psychiatrist who has made his name through his unorthodox treatment of psychological damage, such as administering LSD to World War II PTSD-sufferers. But now Busner’s own mind is fraying: Alzheimer’s is shredding his memory and his newest possession is a shiny smartphone given to him by his autistic grandson Ben. Meanwhile, Jonathan De’Ath, aka “the Butcher,” is an MI6 man who remains a mystery even to those closest to him. Perhaps there is only one person who thinks of him with tenderness, a man he keeps top secret, encrypted in the databanks of his steely mind: Colonel Gawain Thomas, husband, father, highly trained tank commander, and Jonathan De’Ath’s long-time lover. As Busner’s mind totters and Jonathan and Gawain’s affair teeters, they come to face the interconnectedness of all lives, online and off, while an irritating phone continues to ring. . . . ring. . . . ring. . . .

About this title

About the Author

Will Self is the author of many novels and books of non-fiction, including Great Apes, The Book of Dave, How the Dead Live, which was shortlisted for the Whitbread Novel of the Year 2002, The Butt, winner of the Bollinger Everyman Wodehouse Prize for Comic Fiction 2008, and Umbrella, which was shortlisted for the Booker Prize 2012. He lives in south London.

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

What does Ben call it when his screen doesn’t reload fast enough...? Lagging – that’s it. Annoying little spinning widget appears as well: Lagging – yeah, lagging – that’s it, I’m lagging .... ....! .... ....! I’m lagging and there’s a sorta circlet – or corona, more properly – spinning in the very dead-centre of my visual field .... ....! .... ....! Spinning and spinning and stimming and spinning and... stimming some more – a corona of precisely ruled lines, radiating round into and out of existence .... ....! .... ....! Rota tu volubilis – status malus... Just goes to show, whatever they may say there’s not much wrong with my memory – it’s only that I have to... sort of... download things .... ....! .... ....! while in the meantime there’s all this other... data – such a lot of it, it pours in, more and more – and the more there is, the more it reminds you .... ....! .... ....! you’re alone in here – while out there it’s a Snowden aviary of a dining area, full of trilling laughter and cheeping chatter, out of which emerges this pleasing Scouse whine: Don’t wanna jib youse, but shall we cummere fer oor tea t’night? .... ....! .... ....! Above them not Lennon’s only sky but only fire-resistant tiles – always a lot of fire-resistant tiles in hotels, even expensive ones .... ....! .... ....! But why – why does that old codger have a sweatshirt with Jack Jones written on it? Is it part of a series – an entire fashion line featuring seventies union leaders? If so, where’re Vic Feather and Clive Sinclair? .... ....! .... ....! This where their winter of discontent ended – in a summer city-break, complete with Hilton Honours points. There they are: queuing up in front of a wooden bench piled high with croissants and those muff-things, while their seriously overweight wives saw at the greasy meat on their plates with serrated knives – a mortuary sound .... ....! .... ....! Hang on to the phone – that’s the thing to do. It’s all in the phone: my itinerary, my train times, my medical information – the whole lot. Hang on to the phone – feel the smoothness of its bevelled screen .... ....! .... ....! place your thumb in the soft depression of its belly-button – turn it over-and-over... a five-hundred-quid worry bead – and all I worry about is losing the bloody thing .... ....!

Edition details

• Publisher: Grove Press
• Publication date: 2019
• ISBN 10: 0802129218
• ISBN 13: 9780802129215
• Binding: Paperback
• Language: English
• Number of pages: 624