{"product_id":"a-calling-for-charlie-barnes-9780241972953","title":"A Calling for Charlie Barnes","description":"\u003cb\u003eBook Synopsis\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eFrom the Booker-shortlisted author of \u003c\/b\u003e\u003ci\u003e\u003cb\u003eTo Rise Again at a Decent Hour \u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cb\u003ecomes a \u003c\/b\u003e\u003cb\u003ehilarious\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cb\u003e novel about fathers, sons, thwarted dreams and confronting the reality of who we really are\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e''This is a fine American novel about family, love, and a decent but flawed man trying to be better. In dark times like these, I can''t recommend this book too highly. It''s strong'' Stephen King on Twitter\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e___________________________________\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eCharlie Barnes is a mid-century man devoted to his newspaper and his landline. But Charlie is about to get dragged into our troubled age by his storyteller son, who has a different idea of him than he has of himself. Then there are his other children, his ex-wives, present wife, business clients, friends and acquaintances, all of whom have \u003ci\u003etheir \u003c\/i\u003ecompeting opinions of Charlie.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eHe certainly seems simple enough: he''s a striver, a romantic, and a thoroughgoing capitalist. But suddenly blindsid\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eTrade Review\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eA hilarious skewering of the American Dream by the man who must be the funniest writer we have\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e -- Sathnam Sanghera * Guardian, Best Books of 2021 *\u003cbr\u003eThis is a fine American novel about family, love, and a decent but flawed man trying to be better. In dark times like these, \u003cb\u003eI can't recommend this book too highly\u003c\/b\u003e -- Stephen King\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eSplendid\u003c\/b\u003e . . . it is hard to be \u003cb\u003egenuinely funny\u003c\/b\u003e in a novel but the final 50 or so pages, in which Charlie's family confront Jake Barnes, the fourth wall-breaking narrator of the novel, over the content of the tell-all memoir, was \u003cb\u003eeasily the most hilarious chapter of a novel I read all year\u003c\/b\u003e -- Martin Chilton * Independent, 20 Best Books of 2021 *\u003cbr\u003eUntil I read \u003ci\u003eA Calling For Charlie Barnes\u003c\/i\u003e, Joshua Ferris's \u003cb\u003evirtuosic \u003c\/b\u003ethird novel, I couldn't recall the last time a book \u003cb\u003ecaused me to both laugh and gasp aloud\u003c\/b\u003e. \u003cb\u003eMadly funny and bristling with intelligence\u003c\/b\u003e, this is the story of a man in later life wallowing in the detritus of the American Dream and of the children witnessing his decline -- Megan Nolan * New Statesman, Books of the Year *\u003cbr\u003eSimultaneously \u003cb\u003enarratively courageous and utterly hilarious\u003c\/b\u003e . . . where it leaves the reader feels\u003cb\u003e special and unique \u003c\/b\u003e * Sunday Times *\u003cbr\u003eIn \u003cb\u003eFerris's admirably risk-taking hands\u003c\/b\u003e, this novel becomes \u003cb\u003eso much more than simply another story of failed American dreams. \u003c\/b\u003eFerris has made himself into the \u003cb\u003eleading writer of the American workplace\u003c\/b\u003e . . . He understands both its absurdities (and this is another \u003cb\u003every funny\u003c\/b\u003e book) and its rewards, but most of all\u003cb\u003e he understands how it shapes modern America\u003c\/b\u003e * Observer *\u003cbr\u003eFerris could write \u003cb\u003eenthralling realist fiction\u003c\/b\u003e in his sleep but it's \u003cb\u003ethe ideas and formal ingenuity that really set this novel apart\u003c\/b\u003e . . .  [he considers] the role of storytelling in families, the myths we create and the possibility that there is no such thing as telling it straight * i *\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eBrilliant, funny, heartbreaking . . .\u003c\/b\u003e \u003cb\u003eFamily, memory, ambition and death, all told with dervishing glee. Not just a daredevil of a novel, but something truly new\u003c\/b\u003e -- Andrew Sean Greer, author of Less\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eFerris is on his finest deadpan form\u003c\/b\u003e here, skewering contemporary America and the shallow values it embodied in the heat of the 2008 financial crash * Spectator *\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eInventive and witty, tender and wise. It's a portrait of life, love and death, and much else besides\u003c\/b\u003e * Daily Mail *\u003cbr\u003eThis is the story of one disappointed idealist told by another, of one unreliable narrator described by another, and it is \u003cb\u003eanimated by filial love\u003c\/b\u003e . . . \u003cb\u003efunny, moving - and surprising \u003c\/b\u003e * Guardian *\u003cbr\u003eThis novel is \u003cb\u003efunny \u003c\/b\u003e- Ferris has \u003cb\u003elovely comic timing \u003c\/b\u003eand a great way with the sheer silliness of a family's mental and physical bric-a-brac - and \u003cb\u003every moving  \u003c\/b\u003e * Guardian *\u003cbr\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eDazzling \u003c\/b\u003e. . . A \u003cb\u003emore tender novel than Ferris's others, but that doesn't keep it from being murderously funny\u003c\/b\u003e . . . [he has found] precisely the right way to\u003cb\u003e meld memoir with satire, to do this with bracing originality\u003c\/b\u003e and to keep heads spinning from this novel's first page to its last . . . \u003cb\u003ehe's risen to the top of his game\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e * New York Times *\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eFunny, moving, and formally a work of genius,\u003c\/b\u003e \u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eA Calling for Charlie Barnes\u003c\/i\u003e is quite literally the book Joshua Ferris was born to write\u003c\/b\u003e. -- Garth Risk Hallberg, author of City on Fire\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eDazzling.  Mind-blowing.  About as much fun as you can have without risking arrest\u003c\/b\u003e * Richard Russo, author of Empire Falls *\u003cbr\u003eA \u003cb\u003edeeply funny, very moving book\u003c\/b\u003e . . .  Ferris's hijinks are serious; his play is profound. \u003cb\u003eThere is magic in these pages\u003c\/b\u003e -- Ayad Akhtar, author of Homeland Elegies\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eA touching tale about the love between fathers and sons\u003c\/b\u003e * The Times *\u003cbr\u003e\u003cp\u003eA \u003cb\u003epassionate, well-constructed, often hilarious\u003c\/b\u003e and, at times, \u003cb\u003eprofound plunge into grief, both civic and intimate\u003c\/b\u003e, as well as a culmination (so far) of the literary explorations he has been undertaking since he arrived\u003c\/p\u003e -- Sam Lipsyte * New York Times Book Review *\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003eA Calling for Charlie Barnes\u003c\/i\u003e is \u003cb\u003ewonderful\u003c\/b\u003e: \u003cb\u003efast and deep, urgent and brilliant\u003c\/b\u003e . . . \u003cb\u003eA hilarious, intimate, and scathing takedown of so many American vanities\u003c\/b\u003e -- Dana Spiotta, author of Stone Arabia\u003cbr\u003e\u003cp\u003eHe has proved that he's \u003cb\u003eone of the best American authors of comic fiction working today.\u003c\/b\u003e His \u003cb\u003ehumour\u003c\/b\u003e is on full display but so are his \u003cb\u003eintelligence and compassion\u003c\/b\u003e. It's \u003cb\u003ea masterpiece\u003c\/b\u003e that shines a revealing light on both family and fiction itself\u003c\/p\u003e * NPR *\u003cbr\u003eFerris's work \u003cb\u003ecuts to the heart of who we are \u003c\/b\u003eby focusing very painfully on who one man was . . . Consider this book \u003cb\u003enot just a work of grief or love or memoir, then, but a work of hope, too.\u003c\/b\u003e * Publishers Weekly *\u003cbr\u003e\u003cp\u003eA warmly bullish but measured and reflectful voice that brings out all the \u003cb\u003ehumour and wisdom\u003c\/b\u003e of the novel\u003c\/p\u003e * The Times, Audiobook of the Week *\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eIntriguing and intelligent\u003c\/b\u003e . . . the \u003cb\u003ehumour throughout is exquisitely judged\u003c\/b\u003e . . . and the descent into metafiction, the novel's true crowning glory, is \u003cb\u003eextremely well don\u003c\/b\u003ee without ever feeling hammy or clunky * Irish Times *\u003cbr\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eA relentlessly self-reflective book\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e * FT *\u003cbr\u003eJoshua Ferris has proved his \u003cb\u003eastonishing ability to spin gold from ordinary air \u003c\/b\u003e. . . As\u003cb\u003e brave and adept \u003c\/b\u003eas any writer out there * New York Times Book Review on To Rise Again at a Decent Hour *\u003cbr\u003eNot too many authors have written the Great American Office Novel...\u003ci\u003e Then We Came to the End\u003c\/i\u003e feels like\u003cb\u003e a readymade classic of the genre\u003c\/b\u003e. . . . \u003cb\u003eA truly affecting novel about work, trust, love, and loneliness\u003c\/b\u003e * Michael Upchurch, Seattle Times on Then We Came to the End *\u003cbr\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eDismayingly funny in the way that only really serious books can be\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e * Guardian, on 'To Rise Again at a Decent Hour' *\u003cbr\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eBrilliant, funny, stomach-turningly accurate\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e * Observer, on 'Then We Came to the End' *\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eVery funny, intense and exhilarating \u003c\/b\u003e * The Times, on 'Then We Came to the End' *","brand":"Penguin Books Ltd","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":48733410197847,"sku":"9780241972953","price":8.54,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0817\/1739\/5799\/files\/9780241972953.jpg?v=1720000011","url":"https:\/\/bookcurl.com\/products\/a-calling-for-charlie-barnes-9780241972953","provider":"Book Curl","version":"1.0","type":"link"}