Topics About Which I Know Nothing

by PatrickNess (Author)

• Used

  Paperback
  2014

  $3.36

  Scintillating, surprising, inventive fiction from one of the most talented writers in Britain - this is a superb collection of short stories from the acclaimed author of the Chaos Walking series and 'More Than This'. Have you heard the urban myth about Jesus's double-jointed elbows yet? 100% true. Or seen the latest reports on the 'groomgrabbing' trend - the benevolent kidnapping of badly-dressed children by their well-meaning (and more dapper) elders? Heard the one about the Amazon from the Isle of Man? Or perhaps you'd like a job in telesales, offering self-defence classes over the phone? Don't worry, as long as you meet the weekly quota, you won't be sent to the end of the hall...Wonderfully original, fresh and funny, 'Topics About Which I Know Nothing' is stuffed to the gills with dizzyingly inventive writing and warming, puzzling emotions - a fictional guide to how the world might have turned out.

• Used

  Paperback
  2004

  $4.85

  Scintillating, surprising, inventive fiction from one of the most expressive younger writers in Britain. A book that is stuffed to the gills with giddyingly inventive writing and warming, puzzling emotions. Here be the Seventh International Military War Games Dance Committee Quadrennial Competition and Jamboree in all their televised, tacky, terrifying glory. And here are some of the choicest urban legends, each of them sliding toward Truth. Or a report on the trend of groomgrabbing -- the involuntary-but-not-violent seizure of the sartorially challenged by their well-meaning (and dapper) elders. And perhaps the most menacing (but then they're all menacing) telesales operation you could ever wish to encounter. This is a world ruled by fashion and the media, by branding and self-help jargon, by disinformation and paranoia, but it is a world where those that are being ruled tend not to comply readily, to forget themselves, to disobey and disappear. It all makes for a book that crackles with tension, wit and awe.