Meatspace

Description

The second novel from Costa First Novel Award shortlisted author Nikesh Shukla. Kitab Balasubramanyam's life is falling apart around him. First he lost his girlfriend, then his job. The novel he put his all into didn't sell and he's not written anything beyond 140 characters for since. He's pushing away his widowed father, unable to listen to tales of his dad's online dating successes, and now his brother Aziz is leaving their shared flat to travel to America in search of his Facebook doppelganger. Despite the relentless buzz of notifications on his phone, Kitab is alone. But when his only known namesake turns up in London from Bangalore, intent on being part of Kitab's life, at whatever cost, Kitab is forced to fight for the identity he thought he was so tired of.

Nikesh Shukla is a writer of fiction and television and host of the Subaltern podcast. His debut novel, Coconut Unlimited was shortlisted for the Costa First Novel Award 2010 and longlisted for the Desmond Elliott Prize 2011. Meatspace is his second novel.

'Like Douglas Coupland's Generation X, this novel captures a cultural moment' - Guardian 'An anarchic, self-involved and admirably honest portrait of a bookish life lived in the brave new digital world' - New Statesman 'Chilling' - Observer 'Buzzing with streetwise smarts and satirical barbs, it's a thoughtful, often hilarious, meditation on a young writer's loneliness in the digital age' - Independent on Sunday 'Brilliant stuff ' - Londonist 'Hilarious and disturbing' - Stylist 'Meatspace is funny. Damn funny. You should really switch off your computer and read it' - Matt Haig, author of The Humans 'Meatspace is the greatest book on loneliness since The Catcher in the Rye' - Gary Shteyngart, author of Super Sad True Love Story 'Totally original and funny and humane' - Sathnam Sanghera, author of The Boy with The Topknot 'Meatspace is, simply, one of the finest novels I have ever read about modern life and modern living. Douglas Coupland, Junot Diaz, Chuck Palahniuk and Jennifer Egan: stick them in a blendr, and out comes this amazing new novel by one of the UK's most distinct voices' - James Smythe, author of The Machine 'Very funny and I'd recommend it to anyone' - Rick Edwards in the Metro