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

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

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

Outstanding literature. Shamelessly entertaining

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

Walden makes both trivialities and atrocities sparkle

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

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

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

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

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

Praise for Bloody Awful in Different Ways

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, p ...

'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

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, p ...

'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

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, p ...

'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

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