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Madness is Better than Defeat
Ned Beauman
€ 19.99
€ 14.66
FREE Delivery in Ireland
Description for Madness is Better than Defeat
Paperback. The dazzling new novel by the Man Booker-nominated, Granta Best of Young British novelist, Ned Beauman. Num Pages: 400 pages. BIC Classification: FA. Category: (G) General (US: Trade). Dimension: 234 x 153. .
In 1938, two rival expeditions set off for a lost Mayan temple in the jungles of Honduras, one intending to shoot a screwball comedy on location there, the other intending to disassemble it and ship it back to New York. A seemingly endless stalemate ensues, and twenty years later, when a rogue CIA agent learns that both expeditions are still out in the wilderness, he embarks on a mission to exploit the temple as a geopolitical pawn. But the mission hurtles towards disaster when he discovers that the temple is the locus of grander conspiracies than anyone could have guessed.
Product Details
Publisher
Hodder & Stoughton General Division
Format
Paperback
Publication date
2017
Condition
New
Number of Pages
416
Place of Publication
London, United Kingdom
ISBN
9781473613591
SKU
V9781473613591
Shipping Time
Usually ships in 5 to 9 working days
Ref
99-10
About Ned Beauman
NED BEAUMAN was born in 1985 in London. His debut novel, Boxer, Beetle, won the Writers' Guild Award for Best Fiction Book and the Goldberg Prize for Outstanding Debut Fiction. His second novel, The Teleportation Accident, was longlisted for the Man Booker Prize and won the Encore Award and a Somerset Maugham Award. His third novel, Glow, was published in 2014. He has been chosen by the Culture Show as one of the twelve best new British novelists and by Granta as one of the 20 best British novelists under 40. His work has been translated into more than ten languages.
Reviews for Madness is Better than Defeat
Beauman writes with rare and bizarre brilliance
Sunday Telegraph
Typically quirky . . . Zany and sprawling
Tatler
Wildly original . . . Madness could easily become a confusing mess but Beauman manages to keep the narrative consistently focused and engaging. This madcap ride about the eccentricities of humans will keep you entertained till the last page
Bookriot
A fun madcap mystery
Daily Mail
Beauman's fourth novel provides his usual humour, oddities, convolutions and impressive writing.
Mail on Sunday
Wildly plotted, comedic . . . One senses that behind the vivacious plotting and baroque characterisation, Beauman's purpose is to question the madness of artistic endeavor . . . he emerges from his latest expedition triumphant.
Carl Wilkinson
Financial Times
I am really enjoying it . . . I have no clue what's going to happen when I turn the page
Inua Ellams
BBC Radio 4 Saturday Review
It reminded me of a Coen brothers film . . . I found it enchanting, and I was happy to turn every page . . . I really enjoyed it
Tom Sutcliffe
BBC Radio 4 Saturday Review
Beauman has a gift: he's a natural comic writer. (I've only read one funnier book this year)
Cal Revely-Calder
Guardian
A teaming shaggy-dog comedy of megalomania and obsession . . . Beauman is a sparkling writer, and his book bustles with diverting micro-narratives . . . A novel of great intelligence and humour, cleverly structured and brimming with tricks . . . a tremendous rainbow
Tim Martin
New Statesman
Almost perfect . . . This is one of the most purely enjoyable novels I've read in years - by turns sad, moving, thoughtful, intriguing, clever, enlightening, surprising and laugh-out-loud funny - which is more than enough. I can't think of any type of reader who wouldn't enjoy it: whether your thing is genre, literary or, like this, a fizzling, sparking, sparkling mixture of the two.
Darragh McManus
Irish Independent
Madness is Better than Defeat is a Swiss watch: there isn't a single moving part out of place . . . The jokes are superb . . . a zestful romp? Undoubtedly. But that doesn't quite do justice to the experience of reading Madness is Better than Defeat. The book is certainly a literary performance of a high order . . . The clockwork runs beautifully. Every paragraph gives pleasure.
Kevin Power
Literary Review
Dazzling . . . his best to date . . . If there is one adjective that describes Beauman's prose it is 'buoyant' - a quality which allows the reader to get through a long book with little effort, and the author to carry the considerable heft of his intelligence lightly. And it is a roaming intelligence.
David Patrikarakos
Spectator
Sunday Telegraph
Typically quirky . . . Zany and sprawling
Tatler
Wildly original . . . Madness could easily become a confusing mess but Beauman manages to keep the narrative consistently focused and engaging. This madcap ride about the eccentricities of humans will keep you entertained till the last page
Bookriot
A fun madcap mystery
Daily Mail
Beauman's fourth novel provides his usual humour, oddities, convolutions and impressive writing.
Mail on Sunday
Wildly plotted, comedic . . . One senses that behind the vivacious plotting and baroque characterisation, Beauman's purpose is to question the madness of artistic endeavor . . . he emerges from his latest expedition triumphant.
Carl Wilkinson
Financial Times
I am really enjoying it . . . I have no clue what's going to happen when I turn the page
Inua Ellams
BBC Radio 4 Saturday Review
It reminded me of a Coen brothers film . . . I found it enchanting, and I was happy to turn every page . . . I really enjoyed it
Tom Sutcliffe
BBC Radio 4 Saturday Review
Beauman has a gift: he's a natural comic writer. (I've only read one funnier book this year)
Cal Revely-Calder
Guardian
A teaming shaggy-dog comedy of megalomania and obsession . . . Beauman is a sparkling writer, and his book bustles with diverting micro-narratives . . . A novel of great intelligence and humour, cleverly structured and brimming with tricks . . . a tremendous rainbow
Tim Martin
New Statesman
Almost perfect . . . This is one of the most purely enjoyable novels I've read in years - by turns sad, moving, thoughtful, intriguing, clever, enlightening, surprising and laugh-out-loud funny - which is more than enough. I can't think of any type of reader who wouldn't enjoy it: whether your thing is genre, literary or, like this, a fizzling, sparking, sparkling mixture of the two.
Darragh McManus
Irish Independent
Madness is Better than Defeat is a Swiss watch: there isn't a single moving part out of place . . . The jokes are superb . . . a zestful romp? Undoubtedly. But that doesn't quite do justice to the experience of reading Madness is Better than Defeat. The book is certainly a literary performance of a high order . . . The clockwork runs beautifully. Every paragraph gives pleasure.
Kevin Power
Literary Review
Dazzling . . . his best to date . . . If there is one adjective that describes Beauman's prose it is 'buoyant' - a quality which allows the reader to get through a long book with little effort, and the author to carry the considerable heft of his intelligence lightly. And it is a roaming intelligence.
David Patrikarakos
Spectator