Service

Life at a bookstore in LA through the eyes of a cynical English bookseller - irascible, witty and darkly humourous at his own expense and that of his unfortunate customers

''John Tottenham writes with a rare comic intensity'' Colm Tóibín''My favourite nihilistic romantic'' Rachel KushnerWhat''s this book about? Is there a restroom? Do you have gluten-free bagels? Do you work here? Do you have a restroom? Do I buy books or rent books or what? Still a bookseller in his late forties, Sean knows that the worst thing about a bookshop is the customers. Then there''s the gift-wrapping, the invoicing, the Yelp reviews. The overwhelming sense of self-loathing after another day of not writing a novel yourself. While Sean''s book remains unfinished, his city has changed around him. As have friends and acquaintances, at least the ones who keep in touch. The service industry is different, too. But what, or whom, is he serving anyway? Biting, hilarious and self-aware, John Tottenham''s debut novel is a razor-sharp dissection of gentrification, friendship, jealousy and the role of literature in a digital age.

''John Tottenham writes with a rare comic intensity'' Colm Tóibín''My favourite nihilistic romantic'' Rachel KushnerIn his late forties, Sean, a failed journalist and failing novelist, finds himself working at a bookstore in a rapidly gentrifying Los Angeles neighbourhood, where he is thrown into the company of a younger generation with whom he has little in common. Embittered by his lowly position at this late stage of what had once been a promising career, he collapses his ambition of writing a novel into a hilariously cathartic litany of contempt for his present circumstances. In between chasing noisy cell-phone users around the shop and wrapping books he hates for wealthy mums he hates even more, Sean reflects on his fraught relationship with service as an unrepentant outsider in an age of conformity. With dry wit, John Tottenham''s debut novel reflects on a farrago of contemporary afflictions: gentrification, debt, self-medication, male vanity, professional jealousy, the perils of political correctness, and the role of literature in the digital era.