Description

A PARIS REVIEW BOOK OF THE YEAR

‘Highly accomplished, deeply satisfying … I marked up almost every page’ TLS

‘Laugh-out-loud funny’ DAILY MAIL

‘My favourite nihilistic romantic’ RACHEL KUSHNER

‘A brutally honest, insightful, intelligent and absolutely hilarious novel’ MICHAEL IMPERIOLI

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?

Still a bookseller in his late forties, Sean knows that the worst thing about a bookshop is the customers. Then there’s the gift-wrapping, the invoicing, the Yelp reviews. The overwhelming sense of self-loathing after another day of not writing a novel yourself.

While Sean’s book remains unfinished, his city has changed around him. As have friends and acquaintances, at least the ones who keep in touch. The service industry is different, too. But what, or whom, is he serving anyway? Biting, hilarious and self-aware, John Tottenham’s debut novel is a razor-sharp dissection of gentrification, friendship, jealousy and the role of literature in a digital age.

Publisher Review

So heartfelt that we find ourselves howling with laughter because, despite his best efforts, John Tottenham writes with a rare comic intensity and re-creates himself in the guise of an unforgettable character in fiction -- Colm Toibin The weariest bohemian, with a Keatsian death-drive he somehow keeps outliving, John Tottenham is my favourite nihilistic romantic -- Rachel Kushner, Booker-shortlisted author of Creation Lake Hilarious... A book about the destruction of bohemia and the nightmare of trying to live--let alone make art--with very little money. * The New York Review of Books * Hilarious, refreshingly mean-spirited and often brilliant * Washington Post * A post-punk Byron ... Service looks like a blow but is a prayer -- Constance Debre, award-winning author of Love Me Tender Savage, furious, hilarious and melancholic all at once -- Suzi Feay * Financial Times * Tottenham is an extraordinarily fine writer. He is blessed with a gift for observation ... this is a book of the moment -- Jarett Kobek, author of the internationally bestselling novel I Hate the Internet Consistently hilarious and occasionally heartening -- Los Angeles Review of Books This gritty, bleak, nihilistic, yet darkly funny, novel contains more insight into bookseller life than the many dozens of other contemporary novels on the subject * Lit Hub * Full of whipsmart lines on the drudgery of retail, the futility of art and the hateful lifestyles of hipsters, Service is laugh-out-loud funny and nearly always bang-on true * Daily Mail *