The Family Arsenal

The Family Arsenal is a darkly comic novel of warped morals and disillusionment in South London by the award-winning writer Paul Theroux.

In South London terrorists plot. . .

Hood, a renegade American diplomat, envisions a new urban order in the opium for of his room. He flirts with terrorists, hoping to win their trust and respect. Mayo, his sometime bedmate, has just made a political statement - stealing a Flemish painting and negotiating publicity over this act with The Times. Murf the bomb-maker leaves his mark in red, scrawling ''Arsenal Rule'' across half the city''s walls, whilst his sixteen-year-old girlfriend, Brodie, bombs Euston and afterwards worries about her complexion.

A novel of London lowlife and the dispossessed, and a powerful and violent thriller of disenchanted people.

''A pleasure. . . with Theroux the thrills are never cheap and obvious'' Guardian

''One of the most evocative, intelligently crafted suspense novels in years - like the early fiction of Graham Greene. . . London has rarely looked dingier or more sinister...an assured success'' The New York Times

''Brilliant and haunting. . . the ingenious of the plot, the London setting. . . the trapped and interwoven people, and the balefully witty observation, have an undistracted force'' Observer

American travel writer Paul Theroux is known for the rich descriptions of people and places that is often streaked with his distinctive sense of irony; his novels and collected short stories, My Other Life, The Collected Stories, My Secret History, The Lower River, The Stranger at the Palazzo d''Oro, A Dead Hand, Millroy the Magician, The Elephanta Suite, Saint Jack, The Consul''s File, The Mosquito Coast, and his works of non-fiction, including the iconic The Great Railway Bazaar are available from Penguin.