Book description
Wild Abandon
is Joe Dunthorne's outrageously funny novel of life in a Welsh commune.
Kate and Albert, sister and brother, are not yet the last two human
beings on earth, but Albert has high hopes. The secluded communal farm
they grew up on is - after twenty years - disintegrating, along with
their parents' marriage. They both try to escape: Kate, at seventeen,
to suburbia and Albert, at eleven, into preparations for the end of
the world.
However, Don, the group's leader and their father, is convinced he
can save everything, if only he can bring his followers into the
modern age. How? By force of personality, strict self-sufficiency and
a rave with a 10k soundsystem. Understandably, Albert and Kate have
other ideas . . .
'Populated by flawed, occasionally exasperating, lovable and, above
all, thoroughly imagined characters, Wild Abandon is about what
happens to children when parents become consumed by their beliefs . .
. A terrific novel' Nick Hornby, Guardian, 'Books of the Year'
'A joy. Warm, funny, clever' Sunday Times
'An engaging, emotionally stimulating, chuckle-out-loud read'
Time Out
'Occupying a terrain that lies between the very British humour of
Jonathan Coe and the zeitgeisty ambition of Douglas Coupland . . .
insightful comic writing . . . that manages to be both tender and
biting' Independent on Sunday
'A creation of some genius. Dunthorne is a naturally comic writer'
Daily Telegraph
'Just as funny and acutely perceptive [as] Submarine' Independent
Joe Dunthorne was born and brought up in Swansea. His first novel,
Submarine, won the Curtis Brown prize, has been translated
into ten languages and in spring 2011 was made into an acclaimed film
by Richard Ayoade. His second novel, Wild Abandon, was the
winner of the Encore Award 2012. His stories, poems and journalism
have been published in the Guardian, the Independent,
the Financial Times, the Sunday Times, Vice and
Poetry Review. He lives in London.
Joe Dunthorne was born and brought up in Swansea. His debut novel,
Submarine,
won the Curtis Brown prize, has been translated into ten languages and
in spring 2011 was made into an acclaimed film by Richard Ayoade. His
stories, poems and journalism have been published in the
Guardian
, the
Independent
, the
Financial Times
, the
Sunday Times
,
Vice
and
Poetry Review
. He lives in London.
