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 Kushner What'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? The worst thing about a bookshop is the customers. Then there's the gift-wrapping, the invoicing, the stock takes. The Yelp reviews that inevitably contribute to self-loathing. In his late forties, Sean is still a frustrated bookseller who should have written his novel already. Instead, he spends his days drowning in his overwhelming sense of contempt - for LA, for its readers, for its casual disdain for service. And what, or whom, is he serving anyway? Biting, hilarious and self-aware, John Tottenham's debut novel is a razor-sharp dissection of the modern scourges of gentrification, male vanity, jealousy and the worth of literature in a digital age.