The Adulterants

New
Paperback
2019
$11.66

From the wickedly funny author of Submarine comes a hilarious new tragicomedy -- a screwball tale of millennial angst, pre-midlife crises and one man's valiant quest to come of age in his thirties.
'Blisteringly funny and brimming with caustic charm - a joyous diagnosis of our modern ills that made me laugh out loud even when it was breaking my heart' Paul Murray, author of Skippy Dies
'Every lost generation needs its memorial and now at last we have The Adulterants. It's very sad and very funny and written with an innocence that in fact is diabolical' Adam Thirlwell, author of Lurid and Cute
Ray is not a bad guy. He mostly did not cheat on his heavily pregnant wife. He only sometimes despises every one of his friends. His career as a freelance tech journalist is dismal but he dreams of making a difference one day. But Ray is about to learn that his special talent is for making things worse.
Brace yourself for an encounter with the modern everyman. Enter the world of ironic misanthropy and semi-ironic underachievement, of competitively sensitive men, catastrophic open marriages, and lots of Internet righteousness. With lacerating wit and wry affection, Joe Dunthorne dissects the urban millennial psyche of a man too old to be an actual millennial.

Synopsis

From the wickedly funny author of Submarine comes a hilarious new tragicomedy -- a screwball tale of millennial angst, pre-midlife crises and one man's valiant quest to come of age in his thirties.

'Blisteringly funny and brimming with caustic charm - a joyous diagnosis of our modern ills that made me laugh out loud even when it was breaking my heart' Paul Murray, author of Skippy Dies

'Every lost generation needs its memorial and now at last we have The Adulterants. It's very sad and very funny and written with an innocence that in fact is diabolical' Adam Thirlwell, author of Lurid and Cute

Ray is not a bad guy. He mostly did not cheat on his heavily pregnant wife. He only sometimes despises every one of his friends. His career as a freelance tech journalist is dismal but he dreams of making a difference one day. But Ray is about to learn that his special talent is for making things worse.

Brace yourself for an encounter with the modern everyman. Enter the world of ironic misanthropy and semi-ironic underachievement, of competitively sensitive men, catastrophic open marriages, and lots of Internet righteousness. With lacerating wit and wry affection, Joe Dunthorne dissects the urban millennial psyche of a man too old to be an actual millennial.

$11.66

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More Information

Format: Paperback
Pages: 192
Publisher: Penguin
Published: 07 Feb 2019
ISBN 10: 0241980976
ISBN 13: 9780241980972
Book Overview: Fresh, sharp and wickedly funny, a tragicomic tale of millennial life from the author of Submarine.

Media Reviews

Dunthorne is a superbly economical writer... He is also properly funny. There are several snort-through-your-nose moments. But throughout, the novel's comedy is always balanced by insight and poignancy * Observer *
The Adulterants is thrust-the-book-at-the-person-next-to-you hilarious * New Statesman *
Joe Dunthorne is one of our best young writers * Metro *
Bristles with a deliciously sour, dyspeptic humour and is excellent at skewering the lifestyle habits of a liberal-minded middle-class * Daily Mail *
Perfectly formed... a pin-sharp skewering of a certain type of modern urban thirtysomething male, trapped in a protracted adolescent state. It's one not to be missed * Bookseller *
The Adulterants, from its punning title onwards, is brilliantly knowing about its knowingness. It knows the only way we'll tolerate a narrator as annoying as Ray is to punish him for the very virtues that make him a good narrator - nosiness and eloquence * Guardian *
A sharp satire of contemporary London and the modern urban male * Tatler *
Blisteringly funny and brimming with caustic charm - a joyous diagnosis of our modern ills that made me laugh out loud even when it was breaking my heart * Paul Murray *
Dark, beautifully wry, and side-splittingly excruciating, The Adulterants is a triumph of voice and vision * Tea Obreht *
A tale of modern manhood, full of malaise, melancholy and wryly funny observations * S Magazine *
A richly illuminating comedy of disappointment, uproarious and mournful, that places Joe Dunthorne triumphantly in the tradition of Evelyn Waugh and (that other Swansea resident) Kingsley Amis. A deft, brilliant, surprising joyride * The Art Desk *
Joe Dunthorne's new book is a pleasure - I was very fortunate to get to read his book Submarine early and reading this one was equally thrilling. I owe him a great deal ( but refuse to repay him) * Richard Ayoade *
Smartly written, The Adulterants riffs on London's housing crisis, competitively sensitive men and social media with wry insight * Book Riot *

Author Bio

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. A collection of his poetry is published as Faber New Poets 5. Joe Dunthorne lives in London and The Adulterants is his third novel.