No Good Deed

ISBN-13: 9780099592174 / Angielski / Miękka / 2018 / 304 str.

John Niven

Opis

Now available for preorder: KILL 'EM ALL, the stunning sequel to KILL YOUR FRIENDSThe long-awaited novel by John Niven, bestselling author of Kill Your Friends and Straight White Male.What do you do when the homeless man on the street you've just given money to thanks you by name and turns out to be one of your 'closest' friends, one you haven't seen for over twenty years? Take him for a hot meal and see him on his way? Give him a lot more money than you usually would? Or take him in and try to get him back on his feet? For Alan, there's no question - only natural that he'd want to see his old mate Craig off the streets, even if only for a few nights, and into some clean clothes. But what if the successful life you've made for yourself - good job, happy marriage, lovely kids, grand Victorian house (you did well out of the property boom, thank you very much) - is one that that your old pal would quite like to have too? Even if it means taking it from you? Gradually, inevitably, mayhem ensues as Craig turns Alan's orderly household upside down, threatening to wreck Alan's life for good.Following the divergent lives of two childhood friends, No Good Deed is a funny and painful examination of friendship; of the strange currents of ambition, loathing, pity and affection that flow between people over the decades; and of men getting older as they fail and succeed.

Recenzje

'He's a funny writer, John Niven. Not funny peculiar: funny ha ha. Properly funny, in a scabrous and scatological sort of way, and in his latest book he doesn't disappoint. It's a big, comic tableau, painted in bright, broad shades with plenty of splatter marks ... Niven makes sentences beautifully - which, in whatever genre you are writing, is what matters most - and this novel clips along as enjoyably as all his others ... There are two John Nivens in this novel. One provides the broad farce ... But the other supplies something that's closer to Nick Hornby territory ... Niven is particularly good on how easy it is to resent our friends, how charity can be covertly aggressive, and how psychological power dynamics don't really shift from our teenage years ... There's a poignancy here ... Always worth reading. He's a writer - or two - who still has a lot more in the tank.' Sam Leith Guardian

O autorze

John Niven was born in Irvine, Ayrshire. He is the author of ten novels and has written for a wide range of publications, including a weekly column for the Scottish Sunday Mail. He lives in Buckinghamshire.