Description

Fantasticus Autisticus, his best friend Olly calls him now. He doesn’t really get it, but then he’s got other things on his mind. There’s the weekly haircut, his ritual orbit of the high street, and meeting his grown-up daughter for the first time at two o’clock.But his day does not go to plan. First he is roped into Olly’s haphazard attempt to recover money stolen from his fellow orbiter of the high street, Ahmet. Along the way he bumps into Teigan, who he longs to speak to but can never find the words. And then the nagging voice in his head he calls Daddy commands him to prepare his life story for his daughter. All of it.
And so he remembers. Growing up the only child of a single mother in poverty. The undefinable thing about him that made him different at school. His unlikely escape to university, and the teachings of a nineteenth century mystic.
Along the way, there are moments of both triumph and disaster, of love, friendship, and death. There are comic books (31,284 of them to be precise). And all of it has been leading to this day, when the orbit must break, and everything changes…

Publisher Review

"What a voice is contained within these pages; hilarious, heartbreaking, completely convincing, superbly sustained, wholly marvellous. I fell in love with Fantasticus Autisticus on page one and I'm now missing his company. " Niall Griffiths, author of Broken Ghost "Absolutely brilliant- at times quietly heartbreaking and hopeful, and seasoned with dark humour." Dave Hutchinson, author of Fractured Europe series "A fine coming-of-age story with subtle strains of Vonnegut and Pynchon. Funny in places, heartfelt in others. A splendid read." Mark Thomas, author of The Bothy and Dry Cleaning "A feat of empathy My Life in Orbit takes us deep into the mind of an unforgettable central character with a unique way of looking at the world." Chris Parker, author of Nameless Lake "If anything from this century could have made PG Wodehouse chuckle it might have been this. Look around you on the street, wherever you are: these characters are all there, even slightly less real than they are in these pages - they're the ones trying not to glance back. The star of this book won't much like the word exquisite, and I don't like it much either - but I have to use it here." DBC Pierre, Vernon God Little