‘Even the anticipation of boobs excited me more than playing with them. Maybe that’s life right there.’ A young warehouseman, his promising football career cut short by injury, counts flanges, valves and couplings for a living. He longs for the warmth and women of the office, but the prostitutes who hang around the high-rise are easier to deal with. Drink provides relief, if not escape, and probably the last thing he should dream of becoming is a writer, but then he buys himself a note pad and pen. This debut novel by Neil Campbell, author of the short story collections Broken Doll and Pictures From Hopper, is a moving and darkly comic meditation on the challenge of trying to realise dreams in a harsh and unfair world. Praise for Neil Campbell’s work ‘A vital writer, in touch with people and the natural and constructed worlds around us.’ —Nicholas Royle ‘Everyone who takes contemporary fiction seriously will want to read and re-read this book.’ —Andrew Biswell ‘The dialogue is note perfect and has a studied, savage banality.’ —Paul Magrs ‘These are stories not of love but of need and they ache with truth; they are as eerie and lonely as any Hopper painting.’ —Nuala Ní Chonchúir Neil Campbell writes, “I wrote this book after labouring through a Creative Writing PHD in Northumberland. I wrote it fast. Back on home turf, this novella burst out of me like an animal.” Download it now.
