Submarine
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4.2 • 24 Ratings
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- £4.99
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- £4.99
Publisher Description
Submarine is the wickedly funny first novel by Joe Dunthorne
NOW AN ACCLAIMED FILM BY RICHARD AYOADE
Meet Oliver Tate, fifteen years old. Convinced that his father is depressed ('Depression comes in bouts. Like boxing. Dad is in the blue corner') and his mother is having an affair with her capoeira teacher, ('a hippy-looking twonk'), he embarks on a hilariously misguided campaign to bring the family back together. Meanwhile, he is also trying to lose his virginity - before he turns sixteeen - to his pyromaniac girlfriend Jordana. Will Oliver succeed in either aim? Submerge yourself in Submarine and find out . . .
'Brilliant . . . laugh-out-loud enjoyable. The sharpest, funniest, rudest account of a troubled teenager's coming-of-age since The Catcher in the Rye' Independent
'A richly amusing tale of mock GCSEs, sex, death and challenging vocabulary . . . Excruciatingly funny incidents and cracking gags' Time Out
'Excellent . . . the wonderful, Day-Glo certainties of adolescence have rarely been so brilliantly laid out' Independent on Sunday
'Perfectly pitched . . . transplants The Catcher in the Rye to south Wales . . . Dunthorne can make you laugh like did during double physics on a wet Wednesday afternoon' Observer
'A brilliant first novel by a young man of ferocious comic talent' The Times
Joe Dunthorne was born and brought up in Swansea. He is the author of Submarine, which has been translated into fifteen languages and made into an acclaimed film directed by Richard Ayoade, and Wild Abandon, which won the 2012 Encore Award. His debut poetry pamphlet was published by Faber and Faber. He lives in London.
www.joedunthorne.com
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Welsh-born Dunthorne delves in his debut into the mind of a troubled 14-year-old boy obsessed with his virginity, his parent's failing marriage and the dictionary. Growing up in Swansea, Wales, Oliver Tate is curious about everything going on around him. Fixated on the personal lives of his parents and neighbors, Oliver compulsively keeps a log of his observations, activities and thoughts, many of which revolve around his new girlfriend, Jordana, she of the fully developed breasts and snogging experience. The two become inseparable and eventually wind up together in the sack. Oliver also believes his mother is having an affair with a family friend, and his growing suspicion leads to a half-baked investigation that only complicates matters at home. As Oliver and Jordana's relationship plays out and the truth about Oliver's mother is revealed, Oliver takes some lumps and learns a few lessons. Some readers will be turned off by Oliver's cruelty among other things, he bullies an overweight girl at school and poisons Jordana's dog and others by his precociousness (his log entries include word-of-the-day vocab lessons), but Dunthorne's creation is a true original.
Customer Reviews
Great book
Very funny.