Una favola politica sull'assurdità della guerra, un'opera di fantascienza sarcastica sui pro e i contro dell'Apocalisse, un thriller imbottito di cospirazioni, guerrieri ninja e cani cannibali, un horror alla Lovecraft sul nostro futuro (e non così remoto). La trama: le Bombe Svuotanti hanno cancellato intere zone dalla faccia della Terra. In questo scenario, un mercenario senza nome e il suo eroico compare, Gonzo Lubitsch, accompagnati da una ciurma di guerrieri mal assortita e rotta a ogni esperienza, hanno nelle loro mani il destino dell'umanità. Una slavina di cambi di registro, digressioni e divertissement, maneggiati attraverso una lingua capace di ridere e di far pensare, danno forma a un'odissea nella tradizione del miglior Kurt Vonnegut.

GNOMON - HARKAWAY NICK - Random UK

A KIRKUS REVIEWS and NPR BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR
A WASHINGTON POST AND ALA NOTABLE BOOK

From the award-winning author of Angelmaker, Tigerman is a novel at once heartfelt and thrilling—about parenthood, friendship and secret identities, about heroes of both the super and the everyday kind.

Sergeant Lester Ferris is a good man in need of a rest. After a long career of being shot at, he's about to retire. The mildly larcenous, backwater island of Mancreu, a former British colony in legal limbo, belching toxic clouds of waste and facing imminent destruction by an international community afraid for their own safety, is the ideal place to serve out his time. There is an illicit Black Fleet lurking in the bay: spy stations, arms dealers, offshore hospitals, drug factories and torture centers. Lester's brief, however, is to sit tight and turn a blind eye, so he drinks tea and befriends a brilliant, Internet-addled street kid with a comic-book fixation. When Mancreu’s fragile society erupts in violence, Lester must be more than just an observer: he has no choice but to rediscover the man of action he once was, and find out what kind of hero the island—and the boy—will need.

From the award-winning author of Angelmaker and The Gone-Away World: a novel at once deeply heartfelt and headlong thrilling-about parenthood, friendship, and secret identities, about heroes of both the super and the everyday kind.

Exhausted by a hard tour of duty in Afghanistan, Sergeant Lester Ferris is sent to occupy the largely ceremonial post of British consul in Mancreu. This larcenous island is facing impending ecological disaster-which makes it, in the meantime, the perfect spot for the international underworld. Hence the Black Fleet of illicit ships lurking in the bay: spies, arms dealers, offshore hospitals, money-laundering operations, drug factories, and torture centers. Lester's brief is to sit tight and turn a blind eye, which he's happy to do. In his downtime, he's made a friend: a brilliant, Internet-addled, comic-book-addicted street kid who might, Lester hopes, become an adopted son. But when violence erupts, the boy suddenly needs Lester to be more than just an observer: he has no choice now but to rediscover the man of action he once was-and find out what kind of hero he might become.

A Wall Street Journal and Booklist Best Mystery of 2012

A rollicking romp of a spy thriller from the acclaimed author of The Gone-Away World.

Joe Spork fixes clocks. He has turned his back on his father’s legacy as one of London’s flashiest and most powerful gangsters and aims to live a quiet life. Edie Banister retired long ago from her career as a British secret agent. She spends her days with a cantankerous old pug for company. That is, until Joe repairs a particularly unusual clockwork mechanism, inadvertently triggering a 1950s doomsday machine. His once-quiet life is suddenly overrun by mad monks who worship John Ruskin, psychopathic serial killers, mad geniuses and dastardly villains. On the upside, he catches the eye of bright and brassy Polly, a woman with enough smarts to get anyone out of a sticky situation. In order to save the world and defeat the nefarious forces threatening it, Joe must help Edie complete a mission she abandoned years ago, and he must summon the courage to pick up his father’s old gun and join the fight.

From the acclaimed author of The Gone-Away World, blistering gangster noir meets howling absurdist comedy as the forces of good square off against the forces of evil, and only an unassuming clockwork repairman and an octogenarian former superspy can save the world from total destruction.
 
Joe Spork spends his days fixing antique clocks. The son of infamous London criminal Mathew “Tommy Gun” Spork, he has turned his back on his family's mobster history and aims to live a quiet life. That orderly existence is suddenly upended when Joe activates a particularly unusual clockwork mechanism. His client, Edie Banister, is more than the kindly old lady she appears to be—she's a retired international secret agent. And the device? It's a 1950s doomsday machine. Having triggered it, Joe now faces the wrath of both the British government and a diabolical South Asian dictator who is also Edie's old arch-nemesis. On the upside, Joe's got a girl: a bold receptionist named Polly whose smarts, savvy and sex appeal may be just what he needs. With Joe's once-quiet world suddenly overrun by mad monks, psychopathic serial killers, scientific geniuses and threats to the future of conscious life in the universe, he realizes that the only way to survive is to muster the courage to fight, help Edie complete a mission she abandoned years ago and pick up his father's old gun . . .

A hilarious, action-packed look at the apocalypse that combines a touching tale of friendship, a thrilling war story, and an all out kung-fu infusedmission to save the world.Gonzo Lubitch and his best friend have been inseparable since birth. They grew up together, they studiedmartial arts together, they rebelled in college together, and they fought in the Go-Away War together. Now, with the world in shambles and dark nightmarish clouds billowing over the wastelands, they have been tapped for an incredibly perilous mission. But they quickly realize that this assignment is not all it seems, and before it is over they will have encountered everything from mimes, ninjas, and pirates to one ultra-sinister mastermind, whose only goal is world domination. Unlike anything else, The Gone-Away World is a remarkable literary debut that will be remembered and rediscovered for years to come.

Questo esordio narrativo abbatte a spallate i confini tra i generi letterari: è al contempo una favola politica sull'assurdità della guerra, un'opera sarcastica di fantascienza sui pro e i contro dell'Apocalisse, un thriller imbottito di cospirazioni, guerrieri ninja e cani cannibali, un horror alla Lovecraft sul nostro futuro mica tanto remoto. La trama in soldoni: le Bombe Svuotanti hanno cancellato intere zone della realtà dalla faccia della terra. Un soldato senza nome e il suo eroico amicone Gonzo Lubitsch devono affrontare l'inimmaginabile minaccia che viene dall'esterno della Zona Abitabile: un assortimento da incubo di mutanti e mutazioni. Non contenti di avere fra le mani il destino dell'umanità, i due finiscono per trovarsi coinvolti in un triangolo amoroso potenzialmente catastrofico. Accompagnati da una ciurma di guerrieri male assortita e rotta a ogni esperienza, i nostri eroi riusciranno a salvare questo caoticissimo mondo postapocalittico? E soprattutto: ne vale la pena? Salutata dalla stampa internazionale come un'opera esilarante e profonda, erede di Comma 22 e del miglior Kurt Vonnegut, questa avventurosa odissea comica in 3D dotata di effetti sonori speciali, rappresenta l'irruzione sulla scena letteraria mondiale di un autore pieno di un talento.

About the 'neon fuzz': a note on the book jacket from designer Jason Booher...

"When you read Harkaway's novel, a gigantic sense of weirdness and cool and doom surround the characters. To capture all that plus the absurd humor that pervades this amazing book, the jacket obviously had to be something special. So the otherworldliness that perhaps only neon fuzz can bring hopes to evoke these feelings and add to the strength of and interplay between the words in the title and author's name."

A wildly entertaining debut novel, introducing a bold new voice that combines antic humor with a stunning futuristic vision to give us an electrifyingly original tale of love, friendship and the apocalypse.

There couldn’t be a fire along the Jorgmund Pipe. It was the last thing the world needed. But there it was, burning bright on national television. The Pipe was what kept the Livable Zone safe from the bandits, monsters and nightmares the Go Away War had left in its wake. The fire was a very big problem.

Enter Gonzo Lubitsch and his friends, the Haulage & HazMat Emergency Civil Freebooting Company, a team of master troubleshooters who roll into action when things get particularly hot. They helped build the Pipe. Now they have to preserve it—and save humanity yet again. But this job is not all it seems. It will touch more closely on Gonzo’s life, and that of his best friend, than either of them can imagine. And it will decide the fate of the Gone-Away World.

Equal parts raucous adventure, comic odyssey, geek nirvana and ultracool epic, The Gone-Away World is a story of—among other things—pirates, war, mimes, greed and ninjas. But it is also the story of a world, not unlike our own, in desperate need of heroes—however unlikely they may seem.