LONGLISTED FOR THE DESMOND ELLIOTT PRIZEWhat’s standing between you and success?Black Mirror meets David Nicholls in this dark and funny novel about love in dystopian timesLONGLISTED FOR THE DESMOND ELLIOTT PRIZEWhat’s standing between you and success?What do you do with a generation who’ve had everything, but still can’t grow up?Welcome to The Transition.While taking part in The Transition you and your partner will spend six months living under the supervision of your mentors, two successful adults of a slightly older generation. Freed from your financial responsibilities, you will be coached through the key areas of the scheme – Employment, Nutrition, Responsibility, Relationship, Finances and Self-Respect – until you are ready to be reintegrated into adult society.At the end of your six months – who knows what discoveries you’ll have made about yourself? The ‘friends’ you no longer need. The talents you’ll have found time to nurture. The business you might have kick-started.Who knows where you’ll be?‘Very funny’ William Boyd, Guardian best summer reads 2018‘A fresh, funny and gripping vision of the near future that rings frighteningly true’ Joe Dunthorne, author of Submarine‘Terrific. Clever and funny and a total page-turner to boot’ Nathan Filer, author of The Shock of the Fall‘Utterly vital’ Paul Murray, author of Skippy Dies‘Essential reading for generation rent’ Jenn Ashworth, author of FellBlack Mirror meets David Nicholls in this dark and funny novel about love in dystopian timesKarl has let his debts get wildly out of control and, in desperation, has sort of semi-accidentally committed credit-card fraud. Now he could have to go to prison, so when he and his wife Genevieve are instead offered a place on a mysterious self-improvement scheme called The Transition, they agree. It’s only six months, after all, and at first all it requires is that they give up their credit cards and move into the spare room of their ‘mentors’, Janna and Stu, who seem perfectly lovely . . .The sort of book that cuts you off from your family and has you walking blindly through seven lanes of traffic with your face pressed obliviously to the page’ The Times‘Luke Kennard’s wit and astonishing virtuosity, so present in his poetry, have safely made the journey to his beguiling first novel The Transition: very funny, gimlet-eyed observation’ William Boyd, Guardian best summer books 2018‘Richly enjoyable . . . what really makes this novel stand out is not the Black Mirror-style black comedy but the tenderly devastating portrait of mental illness. The dystopia turns out to be a love story after all’ Guardian‘Very funny, compassionate and scathing. Just the ticket for fans of Jonathan Coe’ Laline Paull‘Terrific. Clever and funny and a total page-turner to boot’ Nathan Filer'Disquieting and witty but with such tenderness at its core that it's often heart-stopping. Gorgeous stuff. I devoured it' Lisa McInerney, author of The Glorious Heresies‘Extremely smart and extremely funny, Luke Kennard's first novel is a brilliant dismantling of our corporatized century. It also features one of the most endearingly hapless heroes since Lucky Jim. In a world where everything real has been outsourced if it can't be demolished, a book like The Transition is not just a ray of light – it's utterly vital’ Paul Murray, author of Skippy Dies‘Essential reading for generation rent. Funny, necessary and all too close to the bone’ Jenn Ashworth, author of The Friday Gospels‘Completely gripping – a unique idea executed with verve, confidence and razor sharp wit’ Isy Suttie‘Black Mirror with a lighter touch. A day-after-tomorrow novel that defines a generation’ Matthew De Abaitua, author of The Red MenLuke Kennard is the author of five collections of poetry. He won an Eric Gregory Award in 2005 and was shortlisted for the Forward Prize for Best Collection in 2007. He lectures at the University of Birmingham. In 2014 he was selected by the Poetry Book Society as one of the Next Generation Poets. His latest poetry book, Cain, was published by Penned in the Margins in June 2016. The Transition is his first novel.• A funny, timely and moving story about a marriage tested to the limits• Longlisted for the Desmond Elliott Prize• ‘A total page-turner’ Nathan Filer (The Shock of the Fall 250K TCM)• Full of pressing and urgent issues such as mental health and the housing crisis• A Radio 4 Book at BedtimeCompetition: Buried Giant; Heart Goes Last; Slade House; Gap Of Time; Glorious Heresies; The Reluctant Fundamentalist; Buried Giant. Jonathan Franzen;David Mitchell; Jeanette Winterson; Anne Tyler; Kazuo Ishiguro; Margaret Atwood; Emma Donoghue; Jonathan Coe; John Lanchester; Dave Eggers; Nicholas Searle; Paul Murray; Lisa McInerney; Gavin Extence; Zadie Smith; Lauren Groff; Mohsin Hamid; David Mitchell;
Publicat de: HarperCollins Publishers