Phone

byWill Self

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For the four characters at the heart of Will Self's brilliantly acute novel of our times the phone is both a blessing and a curse. For elderly Dr Zachary Busner it is a mysterious object, but also his life line to his autistic grandson Ben, whose own connection with technology is, in turn, a vital one.

For Jonathan De'Ath, aka 'the Butcher', MI6 agent, the phone may reveal his best kept secret of all: that Colonel Gawain Thomas, husband, father, and highly-trained tank commander - is Jonathan's long time lover.

And when technology, love and violence finally converge in the wreckage of postwar Iraq, the Colonel and the Spy's dalliance will determine the destiny of nations. Uniting our most urgent contemporary concerns: from the ubiquitous mobile phone to a family in chaos; from the horror of modern war, to the end of privacy, Phone is Will Self's most important and compelling novel to date.

A triumph ... Phone is the final instalment in one of the most ambitious and important literary projects of the 21st century ... It'll take you a couple of weeks to read all three novels properly. But I can't think of a better way to spend your time. Self's message is a perennially important one, brilliantly expressed: only connect

Observer

About Will Self

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, Umbrella, which was shortlisted for the Booker Prize 2012, and Shark. His most recent novel, Phone, was shortlisted for the Goldsmiths Prize. He lives in south London.
Details
  • Imprint: Penguin
  • ISBN: 9780141046396
  • Length: 624 pages
  • Dimensions: 198mm x 26mm x 129mm
  • Weight: 426g
  • Price: £20.99
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