Synopses & Reviews
Harry Christmas is unable to cope with the death of his wife and has been bouncing from one bad decision to the next. After a terrifying assault by the son of a woman he has conned, he makes up his mind to leave the country. Now Harry Christmas is on the run.
On a mission to track down his wifes ancestral village, Christmas arrives in Venezuela certain that his fortunes are about to improve. Hes dead wrong. Soon out of money and luck, he is forced into yet more deceitwith devastating consequences for those he has fooled. Lost, drunk, and lurching across rural Venezuela, Christmas reaches the point of breakdown. He wakes up in a village at the end of the world. He is hanging by one leg from a tree. Inspired by the mighty Lola Rosa, he tries to crawl out of his spiritual abyss and find a way to live amongst these fishermen and farmersbut love isnt easy when you are a career liar still married to the dead. As the real trouble begins, can redemption survive?
Published in the UK to great acclaim, A Bright Moon for Fools is a comic novel that is as funny as it is heartbreaking. Jasper Gibsons debut marks the arrival of a bold new voice in fiction.
Review
"Few first novels are as bold or as haunting as this."
The Spectator"This book is part thriller, part farce, part Don Quixote, and has plenty of excellent writing...Gibson has created a larger-than-life character in Harry Christmas." Kirkus Reviews
"A Bright Moon for Fools is often very funny indeed...the vigour of its central character propelling it constantly forward, its jokes and riffs crackling and sparking. A Christmas to remember." The Guardian
A terrific first novel starring a magnificently disastrous Christmas.” Daily Mail
"Pulses with vivid prose and plenty of local color." Booklist
Very funny, very moving and very unpleasant.” Michael Palin
Wonderfully poetic, absorbing and so funny I snorted tea through my nose. And I wasnt even drinking any.” Danny Wallace
"Harry Christmas is amongst the greatest characters of modern fiction; your right hand wants to protect him, and your left hand wants to punch him. Reading this novel is an exhilarating adventure." Niall Griffiths
"Relentlessly funny, blazingly paced, a pinball ride of a novel propelled by the dreams and schemes of one of the most memorable anti-heroes in contemporary fiction." Chloe Aridjis
"In Harry Christmas we have a hero who belongs to that glorious strain of Englishness that encompasses Keith Floyd and John McCririck an unrelenting force of dog and duck feverishness and confused chutzpah, a sweaty man child, but a king none the less." Simon Day
"An incredibly entertaining read that grabs you first with great humour and doesnt let go as you become involved in a much deeper story... Harry Christmas is a character I wont ever forget." The Bookbag
"Up there with the best debut novels of the last decade." Bookmunch
About the Author
Jasper Gibson was born in Ashbourne, Derbyshire, England, in 1975. He first visited Venezuela in 2008 and has lived and worked there as an English teacher and on a cacao plantation. He is the cofounder of thepoke.co.uk, the UKs largest comedy site with over ten million hits a month.
A Bright Moon for Fools is his first novel. He lives in East Sussex, England.