Book of Dave

When cabdriver Dave Rudman's wife of five years deserts him for another man, taking their only child with her, he is thrown into a tailspin of doubt and discontent. Fearing his son will never know his father, Dave pens a gripping text — part memoir, part deranged philosophical treatise, and part handbook of "the Knowledge" learned by all London cab drivers. Meant for the boy when he comes of age, the book captures the frustration and anxiety of modern life. Five hundred years later, the Book of Dave is discovered by the inhabitants on the island of Ham, where it becomes a sacred text of biblical proportion, and its author is revered as a mighty prophet.

"Self achieves an elaborate vision of vicious superstition and hopeless struggle." New Yorker

"[Y]ou will marvel at the ingenuity of this highly literate, superbly written satire of what societies deem sacred." Library Journal

"[B]y turns acrid, funny and perversely moving." Kirkus Reviews

"Though his prose can be undisciplined, Self's energy and ideas pick up the slack and make this a remarkably sharp book about the many ways people can go terribly wrong." Seattle Times

"He wields language with the blazing precision and confident brio of a Jedi knight slashing through darkness." Mineapolis Star Tribune

"You're left with the intoxication of Self's wordplay and the clarity of his visions." Los Angeles Times

"In the hands of many writers, this premise would come to nothing more than a long string of laughs....The Book of Dave is thoroughly bleak, and satisfying in the uncompromising completeness of its vision." Boston Globe

"The adventures of Carl Devush and Antone Bom and Tyga are riveting, and the story of Symun, Devush's father, is a heart-breaker. If there's a complaint, well...having followed these blokes through almost 500 pages, some of us wish Self had allowed them a happier ending." Hartford Courant

Will Self is the acclaimed author of such books as The Quantity Theory of Insanity, Great Apes, and How the Dead Live. He won the Geoffrey Faber Memorial Prize and was shortlisted for the Whitbread Book of the Year. Will Self lives in London.