Andrev Walden

Ian Giles

A LITTLE TREASURE OF A BOOK. Hilarious but vulnerable, clever but raw, and pure joyous storytelling on every page. You’ll come for the laughs, but you’ll stay for the love letter, from a grown man to his boy self, promising everything will be all right

Fredrik Backman, author of A Man Called Ove

'I challenge you not to fall in love with Andrev as he thrashes doggedly through life - perpetually hopeful and inept. This is a small gem of a novel, with an irresistible voice and a teasing sidelong wit

This is a truly special novel. A delight from start to finish. Captures the joy and pain of being a teenager perfectly. I adored Andrev and already miss him

Jennie Godfrey, author of The List of Suspicious Things

Darkly funny ... Distinctive ... Walden’s instinct for observation and his ear for prose are flawless. His understated humour is particularly winning … The writing remains so sharp, so beguiling, so acutely observed

A proven winner ... It tells you things about growing up that you didn’t realise were true, not until Walden put them into words ... Comparisons will inevitably be drawn with another Swedish novel, Fredrik Backman’s A Man Called Ove (2012). Similarly perceptive of human behaviour (albeit about an old man rather than a young one) and as tragicomic, that novel went from being Sweden’s bestselling book of 2013 to global blockbuster. There’s no reason why Bloody Awful in Different Ways can’t do the same. Bloody awful? Bloody brilliant, more like

What a book! I laughed, cried, despaired and hoped for this young boy negotiating seven fathers in seven chaotic years, taking us with him for the wild ride. A story that reads this easily with consummate fluidity, pace and comic timing deserves the widest audience possible

Jo Browning Wroe, author of A Terrible Kindness

Walden’s story is rich with dark humour and tender coming-of-age moments that make this a brilliant and beguiling page-turner

Darkly funny, and comically tragic. An absolute gem. I loved it

Claire Fuller, author of Unsettled Ground

Walden grips your attention with darkly comic verve, and there’s a truly ugly undertow to his portrait of toxic masculinity, rendered all the more shocking by the narrator’s partial understanding

Walden has a distinctive voice and has crafted a wonderfully written page-turner that, despite its often bleak subject matter, made me laugh out loud

Funny and profound ... With a distinctive narrative voice, this deftly balances humour and sadness

In conversational, often funny prose, Walden dodges the mawkish, opting to present a child’s view of life ... It is [Andrev’s] acute self-awareness, as a writer and custodian of his memory, that sets Walden and his debut book apart

Through Walden's precise and evocative language, we are invited into a young boy’s observations of the world and his journey into manhood. A sharply critical view of the male-dominated world is interwoven with tender portrayals of how a person is shaped by their relationships. It becomes unmistakably clear how vulnerable and strong we are in relation to one another. I laugh, I ache, and I reflect as I read Walden’s book

Lisa Ridzén, author of When the Cranes Fly South

Outstanding literature. Shamelessly entertaining

In a perfect balance between levity and sadness, Andrev Walden depicts a boy's attempt to come to terms with a life where fathers are constantly replaced. Bloody Awful in Different Ways is a humorous examination of a different kind of childhood, which, despite the pervasive blackness, is portrayed with an inexhaustible warmth and presence

Walden makes both trivialities and atrocities sparkle

Vivid, funny, and achingly tender ... A rare, unmissable gem

This is a childhood story of the humorous kind, which occasionally resembles a fairy tale – but also has a core of seriousness and sadness, through its portrayal of men’s violence against women and children … A remarkable achievement ... A debut that bodes very well

A hair-raising story, formidably told [...] I would sacrifice blood for his language

Walden impresses greatly with his thoughtful storytelling and unique filter against reality

If there is such a thing as an absolute literary ear, Andrev Walden has it, because throughout the book he hits every single note right and that is something very unusual - 5/5

This tragicomic account of a boyhood is at once sitcom, circus, and extended nightmare. As Andrev learns about masculinity through a series of hapless and sometimes toxic ‘dads’, his memorable and wildly vivid voice persists as a form of hope

Clare Pollard, author of The Modern Fairies

Important to note that the title is not a true reflection of the novel: indeed, I’d attest that Andrev Walden’s story is actually bloody brilliant in different ways

The new Knausgaard ... Witty and insane about lousy stepfathers and the innocent but brutal eighties

A gripping coming-of-age novel with a playwright's confidence and linguistic flair ... Brilliant

A tender, razor-sharp debut from Andrev Walden…Walden’s prose walks the tightrope between heartbreak and hilarity

Elegant and distinctive ... It's painful, it's strong, but it's also really funny

Once I had seven fathers in seven years. This is the story of those years. 
 
I’m fizzing. I love not being his son. 
Yes. I can feel it in my whole body. A great thrill – as if an adventure has begun. As if I’m the boy in a book about a boy who finds out his dad is the king of a magical and distant land. 
 
Christmas, 1983. In the aftermath of yet another furious argument, seven-year-old Andrev’s mother lets him in on a secret: his father is, in fact, not his father. And so begins a new kind of childhood, in which fathers come and go, arriving in red Volvos and sweeping his mother off her feet. Fathers can be magicians or murderers, artists or thieves, and, like growing pains, or the weather, they appear uninvited and leave without warning. Fathers are drawn to his mother like moths to a flame – but even she can’t control how they behave. 
 
Vivid and joyful, raw and tender, Bloody Awful in Different Ways is a novel about growing up in the chaos of social change; about how love begins and ends; and above all, about men. Because after all, you learn an awful lot about this strange species when you have seven fathers in seven years.

Andrev Walden

Follow penguin

Follow ladybird

Follow puffin

Sign up to the Penguin newsletter