Galley Beggar Press - Limited Editions

Tinderbox (exclusive limited edition)

jordison — Tue, 09 May 2017 09:29:01 +0000

Price:

£12.00

This limited edition non-fiction book with a lovely cream cover is out in November - but available to pre-order right now!

Megan Dunn was in a hole. Her attempt to write a fictional tribute to Fahrenheit 451 wasn't going well. Borders, the bookseller she worked, for was going bust. Her marriage was failing. Her prospects were narrowing. The world wasn’t quite against her – but it wasn’t exactly helping either.

Riffing on Ray Bradbury's classic novel about the end of reading, Tinderbox is one of the most interesting books in decades about literary culture and its place in the world. More than that, it's about how every one of us fits into that bigger picture – and the struggle to make sense of life in the twenty-first century.

Ironically enough for a book about failures in art, Tinderbox itself is a fantastic achievement; a wonderfully crafted and beautifully written work of non-fiction that is by turns brilliantly funny and achingly sad. … It will help ensure that you will never ever again be rude to anyone working in retail.

Tinderbox is one of the most successful books about failure you will ever read.

Author:

Megan Dunn

Pages:

200

Published:

November 2017

We Are The End (exclusive limited edition)

jordison — Wed, 08 Mar 2017 14:27:00 +0000

Price:

£14.00

Available for pre-order now. Our exclusive blackflap beauty of this wonderful, heartbreaking new novel. Only 500 copies will be printed in this format.

Tomás' girlfriend has left him. She has, in fact, fled to Antarctica, leaving him alone in Santiago, where life is rapidly passing him by.

Tomás is a game designer – but he can't see his ideas through.

Tomás also works in a university – where he spends most of his time hiding under a desk.

Tomás’ flat is falling apart. The band he used to play in is doing annoyingly well. He drinks coffee though a straw straight from the pot because he can't find a clean cup....

We Are The End is the smart and funny debut from Gonzalo G. Garcia. It’s a novel which gives a new voice to the Millennial Generation – exploring the difficulties of finding your place in the world, and having to navigate it, too, with few guides beyond computer game narratives and the useless advice of the older generation...

With its Chilean setting, fresh themes and perspectives – and its willingness to play with form – We Are The End is unique. But it is also universal. Tomás' loss and longing resonate deeply, as do his jokes. There is something of Tomás in all of us – even if he’s someone who ends up sleeping in a tent in his own living room...

Praise for Gonzalo:

A unique and breathtaking talent - Scarlett Thomas

Author:

Gonzalo C. Garcia

Pages:

350

Published:

October 2017

We That Are Young (exclusive limited edition)

jordison — Fri, 03 Feb 2017 15:55:11 +0000

Price:

£14.00

This is our special limited edition out in July. Only 500 will be printed. It will be beautiful. (NB Current cover image is rough... Full glory to follow.)

The story of a billionaire family dynasty, led by a gold-plated madman, stewed in corruption, mired in violence, riven by infighting, deception and lies… The resonances will be there for anyone who knows King Lear - not to mention anyone struggling to come to terms with the new world order - from the rise of the religious right wing in India to the Trump dynasty in the United States. This is not just Shakespeare repurposed for our times – it’s a novel that urgently matters in 2017, and which will resonate for years to come.

Jivan Singh, the bastard scion of the Devraj family, returns to his childhood home after a long absence – only to witness the unexpected resignation of the ageing patriarch from the vast corporation he founded, the Devraj Company. On the same day, Sita, Devraj’s youngest daughter, absconds – refusing to submit to the marriage her father wants for her. Meanwhile, Radha and Gargi, Sita’s older sisters, must deal with the fallout… And so begins a brutal, deathly struggle for power, ranging over the luxury hotels and spas of New Delhi and Amritsar, the Palaces and slums of Napurthala, to Srinagar, Kashmir.

Told in astonishing prose – a great torrent of words and imagery – We that are young is a modern-day King Lear that bursts with energy and fierce, beautifully measured rage. Set against the backdrop of the anti-corruption protests in 2011–2012, it provides startling insights into modern India, the clash of youth and age, the hectic pace of life in one of the world’s fastest growing economies – and the ever-present spectre of death. More than that, this is a novel about the human heart. And its breaking point.

Here's what people are saying about Preti:

Utterly engrossing, very smart, very moving… We That Are Young is subtle, ambitious and highly original.’

Andrew Motion

‘Preti Taneja is a writer to watch, no doubt about it.’

Deborah Levy

‘Taneja writes in light bright prose that echoes Katherine Mansfield, only to surpass her.’

Maureen Freely

‘Her characters are sensuously, tangibly, present; her prose draws you in with the sureness of poetry.’

John Cornwell

Author:

Preti Taneja

Pages:

500

Published:

July 2017

Forbidden Line

jordison — Wed, 04 May 2016 08:33:23 +0000

Price:

£13.00

Out now!

“What grips at once is Stanbridge's beautiful, stately, eccentric and richly rewarding prose. He never lets up, never falters…breathtaking, magisterial, uniquely demented and hilarious - a lavish comic masterpiece."
David Collard

“Everyone needs to sit up and take notice of this, which is Don Quixote on acid. It leaves the doughy train of contemporary realist fiction following way behind.”
Giles Foden

“Forbidden Line is a work of enormous scope and ambition from a writer who combines style, wit… and a rare sense of the ridiculousness of the human condition. Incomparable.”

Alex Pheby, Wellcome Book Prize-shortlisted author of Playthings

Forbidden Line is a challenging, dazzling intellectual achievement. It’s also a book about love and companionship; a novel simultaneously touching and hilarious. Above everything else, it’s a pleasure to read – even if it makes you feel like you’re on a careering train, with all the stops and destinations rubbed off, and no idea where you’re heading...

Forbidden Line is fat, uncompromising and gloriously eccentric. Which is as it should be – since it’s a retelling of Don Quixote combined with a recreation of the Peasant’s Revolt, a gleeful hybrid of science, pseudo-science, absurd theory and profound, ingenious philosophy.

Don and Is career around Essex and London, tilting at windmills, abusing petrol station assistants, fighting with each other and everyone around them. They are on a quest – as far as Don is concerned – to reveal the truth about history (he says there's no such thing) and to uncover the secrets of the hyperfine transition of hydrogen... But Is – like most of us – isn’t really sure what Don is talking about. And all he really wants to do is get through to the next day – and back to his family. Both of which turn into extremely tricky propositions. Don takes Is ever deeper into danger and the very structure of reality begins to turn against them both - as does the narrative of Forbidden Line itself.

There’s never been a book quite like Forbidden Line. Never been anything close.

Author:

Paul Stanbridge

Pages:

630

Published:

November 2016

Feeding Time - Limited Edition

jordison — Thu, 18 Feb 2016 16:56:36 +0000

Price:

£11.00

Out NOW!

This is the limited edition blackflap version of this novel. It will be signed and beautiful. It will be one of only 500 in the world. Our Galley Buddies have already reserved their copies, but we have a few going spare. This is your chance to reserve and pre-order your copy. (The 'shop' paperback line will be available soon. That's lovely too. Just not quite so flapalicious...)

Feeding Time, the debut novel by Paris-based writer Adam Biles, is a story about a rebellion in an old people’s home – or perhaps, more pertinently, about a rebellion of people who just happen to be old. The characters in Feeding Time are as funny, annoying, sharp, deranged, loving, and infinitely various as everyone else. They deserve dignity, and they know it – which makes it all the more imperative that something is done about the appalling conditions in Green Oaks. A story about the triumph of the human spirit told with verve and originality, to simply outline the plot of Feeding Time is to miss out on the strangeness, zest, and vigor of a deeply impressive debut. It is a triumph of the spirit – and a blast of rage against the dying of the light.

“The first full-length work of fiction from Adam Biles: Feeding Time… is a scintillating novel of ideas about an ageing world” (The Guardian, Fiction Picks For 2016)

“If Hemingway were around today, he’d be writing paragraphs like these.” (Frédéric Beigbeder, Le Figaro, December 2015)

Author:

Adam Biles

Pages:

410

Published:

August 2016

Playthings

jordison — Tue, 30 Jun 2015 13:13:51 +0000

Price:

£7.00

SPECIAL GENIUS TEST PRICE! A WHOLE BUNCH OF MONEY OFF!

Paul Schreber is a man who wants to go home – but can’t. He is a man crippled by an illness he doesn’t understand – and sometimes doesn’t even know he has. He's no condition to face the worst - but the worst keeps on happening to him. His family is disintegrating, past traumas are coming back to haunt him - and so are those troubling, seemingly laid-to-rest fears of persecution...

Paul Schreber is paranoid - and they really are out to get him.

Playthings, Alex Pheby's astonishing second novel, delves deep into a disturbed mind - and in doing so, also unearths the roots of the great ills in the twentieth century, the psychological structure of fascism, the cancer of anti-Semitism, and the abuse of institutional power.

Based on the true story of a man who became a case study for Freud and a foundation stone in the psychological make-up of the twentieth century, Playthings is an intense and poetic exploration about what it means to be human. It will shake you to the bone.

Reviews

"If Playthings is a neuronovel then it's arguably the best neuronovel ever written, particularly in its depiction of memory and the instability of personality. But it transcends any such category and is simply a superb novel tout court, Kafkaesque in its nightmarish fluency and a powerful exposition of Kant's celebrated view that 'the madman is a waking dreamer.'" --Literary Review

"Throughout this compelling novel the space between reader and Schreber becomes a sombre reminder of how alone we all are." --The Guardian

"Playthings gets into the head, with tender attentiveness, of a man having a psychotic breakdown and takes up the story where the Schreber left off." --The Lancet

"An incredible work of fiction, all the more fascinating for being based on an actual case. The writing is taut, intense, the everyday world a phantom which Schreber tries so desperately to attain. His disturbance of mind is not so much explained as experienced. This story is powerful and moving; I would recommend it to anyone with an interest in the humanity behind mental illness." --Never Imitate

"Writing of the highest order." --Neil Griffiths

"Creating something out of this nothing is not an easy task but with this most unusual novel, the author has succeeded in doing just that." --Irish Times

*I'm afraid we can't extend the free P&P to addresses outside the UK. But don't let that stop you! Go ahead and buy it - and we'll drop you an email to arrange the extra postage cost. Or email us first. Up to you!

Author:

Alex Pheby

Pages:

235

Published:

November 2015

The Weightless World

jordison — Thu, 19 Feb 2015 17:55:19 +0000

Price:

£7.00

FREE UK P&P* AND A WHOLE BUNCH OF MONEY OFF!

‘Raymond Ess is going to kill me.’ So begins The Weightless World – the latest discovery from Galley Beggar Press. This beautifully written debut held us entranced from that first sentence – and line-by-line, it is nothing short of delightful. It also helps that it has a fantastic premise:

Raymond Ess is fifty-six, a senior executive, an important man. I’m twenty-eight, his personal assistant, not important at all. We work for Resolute Aviation and we’ve come to India to buy an antigravity machine.

That's right. An anti-gravity machine. And it seems crazy – to the narrator, to the reader, possibly even to Ess himself. But the existence of such an instrument also makes perfect sense. Because after all, Ess,the narrator Steven (and we, the readers) live in a world where technology is so advanced that even our phones might as well operate by magic, for all that we understand them. We live in an age when things that would once have seemed miraculous are starting to seem mundane – even if they still, sometimes, bring with them profound implications...

In The Weightless World, Anthony Trevelyan – a new, supremely talented voice in fiction – takes us right up to (and beyond) the limits of possibility. He also weaves a story of deep-rooted humanity, packed with unforgettable characters – and, at its core, an account of friendship, love and loss, which will touch your bleeding red heart.

Praise for The Weightless World

“This is a novel steeped in the heat and light of the subcontinent. And while it requires an initial suspension of disbelief, its themes are wholly serious… This strikingly original debut probes not just the implications of technology but human ties, too.”

(Stephanie Cross, The Lady)

“A literary, speculative, to-hell-with-pigeonholes piece of fiction, The Weightless World blends reality with a fantastical premise. … Galley Beggar Press is fast becoming a hallmark of great literary taste. Their back catalogue shimmers with glorious finds such as Randall, A Girl Is A Half-formed Thing, The White Goddess and Everlasting Lane. The Weightless World is a stylish addition to the canon.” (J.J. Marsh, Book Muse)

“The writing is wonderful, Steven’s voice exquisite… I wouldn’t be surprised to see this book at the very least on shortlists. … I know I’ll go back and read it again, delight in the story, the characters, the writing – it is, I think, that good. It carries a certain sense of – how should I say it – gravity.” (Van Is Reading)

“Engaging, funny and imaginative… The Weightless World is a fine debut, a well-aimed satire that manages to be equally enjoyable and thought-provoking.” (Thom Cuell, Workshy Fop)

“A brisk comic tragedy, the adventure undertaken by the narrator and his boss Ess leads to a surprising, contemplative and ultimately touching ending.” (Lonesome Reader)

“The backdrop of India is beautifully evoked, with its heat, colour, economic contrasts and the duplicity of the multi-national business community… Taut and captivating, this is a fabulous read.” (Jackie Law, Never Imitate)

Author:

Anthony Trevelyan

Pages:

265

Published:

June 2015

How to be a Public Author

jordison — Wed, 23 Jul 2014 23:00:00 +0000

Price:

£7.70

BARGAIN PRICE ON THE SOUGHT-AFTER BLACKFLAP FRANCIS

In the most controversial year in the history of the Man Booker Prize comes a book certain to add fuel to the fire. How To Be A Public Author will take the debate to another level. It will get everyone talking – and laughing – even more about Britain’s biggest annual book bonanza.

Francis Plug is a troubled and often drunk misfit who causes chaos and confusion wherever he goes – and where he most likes to go is to real author events, collecting signatures from the likes of Salman Rushdie, Kazuo Ishiguro, and Eleanor Catton.

As he adds to this collection of signed Booker first editions, Francis – a wannabe author himself – is also helpfully writing a self-help manual. This is devised with the novice writer in mind, and full of sage wisdom and useful tidbits to help ease freshly published novelists into the demands and rigors of author events, readings, and general life in the public eye.

So, "If you're provided with a hands-free mic, clipped to your lapel, don't forget to turn it off when you visit the toilet, or if you need to vomit before your event." Likewise, it's always good to be wary of the germs of fans – and "considering the use of elbow-length dishwashing gloves at book signings, and a large, easy-wipe kitchen apron." And so too, cultivating a photographic 'look' for the many publicity shots you will be subjected to is also a good idea – Francis's personal choice being that of Macaulay McCulkin in Home Alone.

With advice like this, and Francis' warm and deranged personality, How to be a Public Author will prove ESSENTIAL reading for anyone with an interest in the literary world.

How to be a Public Author is a brilliant slapstick comedy, blurring fact and fantasy to astonishing effect, and it is also a surprising and touching meditation on loneliness and finding a place in the world. The Man Booker Prize becomes a springboard to explore what it means to be an author – and a human being – in the twenty-first century.

This novel is certain to be one of the main talking points when the Man Booker Prize is discussed this year, as well as one that will endure long after the controversies have died down. It is an exceptional piece of writing – a novel that readers will love and return to, time and time again.

Praise for Francis Plug

"One thinks of Goethe: one thinks of Shelley: one things of Plug. He is a force of nature, he is sage, bard and prophet:he is in addition a random menace, and at all times you need to know exactlw here he is. They say there are no statues to critics. But the fourth plinth awaits Francis. Perhaps he can be chained to it. (Hilary Mantel)

"Inspired. A brilliant, deranged new comic creation... The funniest book I've read in years." (The Sunday Times)

"Francis Plug rampages across the literary scene like an alcoholic Mr Pooter... it's one of the funniest books I've ever read." (The Times)

"Priceless, exhilarating, this wonderful book... is surely a parable for our times." (The Guardian)

"So funny you find yourself giggling long after you've passed the joke. ... Pure - and purely pleasurable - silliness." (The Times Literary Supplement)

"It is becoming a cliche to say 'Paul Ewen is a comic genius and Francis Plug is one of the funniest books in years' - but it's no less true." (The New Statesman)

"A book of invigorating originality. ... Francis Plug himself is a creation of twisted genius." (The Sunday Express)

"Paul Ewen brilliantly sends up the whole literary circus." (Open Book, BBC Radio 4)

"Wickedly comic... one of the funniest books of the year." (Front Row, BBC Radio 4)

"I howled with laughter." (Town & Country)

"Affable and acute... as sharp as a good gin and tonic." (The New Zealand Listener)

"In his debut novel Paul Ewen has created... an alarmingly hilarious anti-hero, and one that has us hooting at his adventures from the start. ... Outrageously good." (The New Daily, Australia)

"Fact and fiction combine in happy communion in these pages... and perhaps, as Francis believes, it's just a matter of time before there's an inflatable Salman Rushdie figure drawing in the crowds with its bellowing arms flapping in a come-hither way." (The Sydney Morning Herald)

"Both a very funny novel and a brilliant work of conceptual art. ... Trust me on this: everyone is going to be talking about this book." (The Transmitter Magazine)

I love it to distraction -- Dan Rhodes

It's very, very funny -- Simon Crump

This might just be a modern comic masterpiece -- Ben Myers

Funny, clever, and quite unlike any book I've read … Impressive. -- Steve Finbow

Totally deranged and very, very funny -- James Miller

Author:

Paul Ewen

Pages:

297

Published:

September 2014

Randall

jordison — Wed, 18 Jun 2014 23:00:00 +0000

Price:

£7.70

SPECIAL PRICE! Lovely book for less money.

Following the success of A Girl is a Half-formed Thing, Everlasting Lane and The White Goddess: An Encounter, we are proud to be able to bring you another superb work from an exciting new talent.

Beginning in the early 1990s, Randall is a satirical alternative history of the heady years of Cool Britannia and the emergence of the Young British Artists. It asks what would have happened if Damien Hirst had never arrived? If someone else had become the most notorious and influential young British artist?

Early on in this bravura debut we are informed that Hirst was hit and killed by a train in 1989 ("apparently when drunk") – and the focus of everyone's attention falls instead on Randall. Randall – a big, lumbering ape of a man – is a genius of language as much as art, supremely able to baffle, bemuse and amuse the press, public and all around him. He makes a fortune, causes chaos, changes the art world – the whole world – and provides brilliant quips every step of the way: "There's only two things you can do with art: make it, and buy it. Everything else – talking about it, thinking about it, selling it, looking at it – either comes under one of those two, or doesn't count."

As well as providing a sharp, smart commentary on art and capitalism, there's a soft beating heart to Randall. Above everything else, this is a story of love and friendship and loss, as seen through the eyes of Randall's sidekick, Vincent – a narrator very much in the traditional of Nick Carraway of The Great Gatsby or Charles Ryder of Brideshead Revisited. It is touching as well as funny, humane as well as wonderfully cruel. It is a book we expect to get both literary acclaim and notoriety. It will kick ass.

Praise for Randall

Gibbs has produced the sort of novel you pray for as a reviewer – one that you can actually enjoy and not have to search through desperately in order to find something to praise. -- Tibor Fischer, The Guardian

Gibbs’s novel is more than mischief: as with all the best lampoons, it dissects things that really matter and have gone awry -- Toby Lichtig, The Telegraph

By the end – with a shift in point of view to Justine, as she and Vincent head for an inevitably messy rapprochement – you feel Gibbs has worked a double shift, disguising a well-turned tale of family secrecy as an acerbic essay on recent cultural history without short-changing the demands of either form. -- Anthony Cummins, The Observer

An extremely funny satire of the dirty business or art curation, archiving, buying and selling [...] slowly reveals itself as a moving account of friendship, love and loss, coupled with the desire to sift the authentic from the inauthentic, This clever and accomplished transition is relayed in Gibbs’ charming voice, rich in depth and confidence and as knowingly precise as the deftest of brush strokes. – Lee Rourke, The New Humanist

In many ways Randall doesn’t feel like a debut, or rather doesn’t feel like the many debuts which have been written too early, before the author knew what they wanted to say, how to say it and most importantly, how the two meet. It has style and aplomb, and is brimful of brilliance. - John Self, Asylum

This is not a conventional novel, and Jonathan Gibbs is not a conventional writer [...] Randall is exciting and energetic even as it stymies its readers. The questions circling around the near-mythical figure at the book’s center, filtered through Vincent’s eyes or through his artworks, are never fully resolved—but the point of satire has never been to provide answers. – Jeffrey Zuckerman, 3:AM Magazine

Randall not only captures the slightly hysteric mood of this period, but also nails its target with deftness and a degree of affection. It is perhaps successful because that hint of amused fondness balances its satirical offensiveness. But don’t take that to mean that Randall’s satire is insipid, it is exquisitely cleansing and gloriously funny. - Anthony Brown, Time’s Flow Stemmed

Fuck me, this is a fucking good book. Aside from having the obvious perks of ‘shit that I like to read about’ (very few characters, mad thoughtful leading man, scandal, just being generally a bit fucked up) it is written so fucking beautifully that you feel like this man actually existed (read full review) – Book Cunt

Sharp, funny, and cerebral, Randall is a cool book with a big heart, the story of one of the biggest parties of the Nineties and its long, slow morning after. -- Anjali Joseph

A satiric but moving novel about the art world that takes us from the YBA scene in London in the 90s to the penthouses of New York two decades later. It's all made up, Damien's not going to sue, but at the same time, it rings mysteriously true. -- Giles Foden

Told in luminous, biting prose, Jonathan Gibbs' debut novel is a rare delight. Brilliant on art and money (neither of which are easy subjects), this is a novel that is at once funny and heartbreaking, intelligent and fiercely gripping. A book whose characters sing on the page - I missed them as soon as I finished the last few beautiful paragraphs. This will be yet another hit for Galley Beggar Press. -- Alex Preston

Alex also added:

I loved the narrative voice, very Nick Carraway.

Awlright!!

Author:

Jonathan Gibbs

Pages:

314

Published:

June 2014