The All True Adventures and Rare Education of the Daredevil Daniel Bones

The All True Adventures and Rare Education of the Daredevil Daniel Bones
Owen Booth
Our Price:
NZ$ 25.00
Paperback
h198 x 129mm - 352pg
10 Jun 2021 UK
International import eta 7-19 days
9780008282585
Out Of Stock
Currently no stock in-store, stock is sourced to your order
A gloriously moving and entertaining, picaresque debut novel, about a young man' s sentimental education in late 19th-Century Europe; inspired by a real historical figure: ' Captain' Paul Boyton - the ' Fearless Frogman' ' "But who among you might assist me on this adventure? " the Captain shouts. And then the Captain' s eyes fall on me, as was his plan all along, and he points me out, making sure just so' s everyone can see. "What about you, sir? " "Me? " "A strong young man to journey with me across the wild continent, to support me in my life-saving work, and take the name of his village to the farthest corners of civilisation - and paid a wage, of course!" "Of course!" everyone shouts. ' The 1880s are drawing to a close, and 14(-maybe-15)-year-old Daniel Bones fears that the prospects for him and his younger brother Will may be dimming with the century. For the motherless sons of a drunken blacksmith, life on a barren spit of land reaching into the Essex estuary holds little promise. Until one evening, from out of the water, there emerges the astonishing figure of Captain Clarke B: cigar-smoking daredevil adventurer, charlatan, casanova and inventor of the world-famous life-saving inflatable suit. As the Captain embarks on his ramshackle promotional tour of Europe, Daniel is sucked into his wake, on an adventure that will carry him through the waterways of the continent, encountering Kings and Princesses, wealthy widows, irate husbands, anarchists, arms dealers and shadowy power-brokers. It' s an education beyond Dan' s wildest imaginings, across countries undergoing the convulsions of all kinds of revolution, and one that will open his eyes, and his heart. But as he travels further into the dazzle of notoriety and the darkness that lies behind it, Dan' s promise to return and rescue Will seems ever harder to keep. For in the Captain' s world of smoke and mirrors it is all too easy to lose sight of who he is, or the man he ought to be. . .
' A splendid, hilarious novel pulsating with adventure, romance, deception, princesses, anarchists and unexpected wildlife. Booth' s brilliantly coloured, larger-than-life 19th century makes Jules Verne seem like old news. ' Will Wiles, author of PlumePraise for What We' re Teaching Our Sons:' If you like the structure - setup, joke, setup, joke, setup, joke - then you' ll love What We' re Teaching Our Sons. If you don' t, well, there' s still plenty to occupy your attention, because the book is not just funny: there are tiny stories embedded throughout the endlessly repeated pattern, as if a Bridget Riley painting were populated between the lines with lots of Bruegel micro-portraits' Ian Sansom, Guardian' Max Porter' s Grief is the Thing with Feathers and Matt Haig' s How to be Human and Reasons to Stay Alive are contemporary counterpoints, but What We' re Teaching Our Sons feels highly original in scope . . . You start with a smile on your face and end with tears in your eyes. This is the way of this wonderful work' Irish Times' Booth pulls the rug out from under the novel form - not to mention a card-house of masculine archetypes - with tender, satirical, melancholy ease' Joanna Walsh, author of Break. up' I can' t remember the last time I read a book that so frequently reduced me to tears of laughter and painful recognition . . . one of the pleasures, beyond the wit and exuberance of the prose, is the joy of seeing a writer finding the absolutely perfect form for their work' Luke Kennard, author of The Transition' Formally bold, funny, sweetly sad and fiendishly clever, Booth finds, on the journey men take with their boys, a small, fertile, hitherto undiscovered island somewhere in the vast ocean between Donald Barthelme and Nick Hornby' Will Ashon, author of Strange Labyrinth
Owen Booth' s first book, What We' re Teaching Our Sons, was published by 4th Estate in 2018. His short stories have been published in The White Review, Gorse Magazine, The Moth, Hotel, 3AM Magazine and Best British Short Stories 2018, among others. He won the 2015 White Review Short Story Prize and was shortlisted for the 2019 McKitterick Prize. He lives in Walthamstow, North London with his family.
Status: Active
ISBN-13: 9780008282585
Published: 10 Jun 2021
Published In: United Kingdom
Imprint: Fourth Estate
Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers
Format: Paperback
Height: 198mm
Width: 129mm
Weight: 270g
Pages: 352

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