The Teleportation Accident

Description

The fantastically inventive, ingenious and hilarious second novel from Ned Beauman, author of the acclaimed and prizewinning BOXER, BEETLE. HISTORY HAPPENED WHILE YOU WERE HUNGOVER When you haven't had sex in a long time, it feels like the worst thing that could ever happen to anyone. If you're living in Germany in the 1930s, it probably isn't. But that's no consolation to Egon Loeser, whose carnal misfortunes will push him from the experimental theatres of Berlin to the absinthe bars of Paris to the physics laboratories of Los Angeles, trying all the while to solve two mysteries: whether it was really a deal with Satan that claimed the life of his hero, the great Renaissance stage designer Adriano Lavicini; and why a handsome, clever, charming, modest guy like him can't, just once in a while, get himself laid. From the author of the acclaimed BOXER, BEETLE comes a historical novel that doesn't know what year it is; a noir novel that turns all the lights on; a romance novel that arrives drunk to dinner; a science fiction novel that can't remember what 'isotope' means; a stunningly inventive, exceptionally funny, dangerously unsteady and (largely) coherent novel about sex, violence, space, time, and how the best way to deal with history is to ignore it. LET'S HOPE THE PARTY WAS WORTH IT

Ned Beauman was born in 1985 and lives in London. His debut novel, BOXER, BEETLE, won the Writers' Guild Award for Best Fiction Book and the Goldberg Prize for Outstanding debut Fiction, and was shortlisted for the Guardian First Book Award and the Desmond Elliot Prize. In 2011 Ned Beauman was picked by The Culture Show as one of the 12 Best New British Writers.

Less than two years after his multi-award-winning debut BOXER BEETLE Ned Beauman returns with another fizzing firework of a caper, featuring as many cracking escapades as its predecessor . . . His prose is wonderfully discursive and buzzes with originality, while scenes of pure farce nod respectfully to Thomas Pynchon and Hunter S Thompson . . . his bold characterisations, slapstick humour, slick similes and tangential subplots are sublime. A strong, smart follow-up that proves Beauman is more than comfortable with the hype he's created for himself. - Time Out I'm sure it's the funniest novel on the list. - Evening Standard Terrific . . . if there was ever any worry that he might have crammed all his ideas into his first book, this makes it clear he kept a secret bunker of his best ones aside. - Guardian If you care about contemporary writing, you must read this . . . BOXER, BEETLE was acclaimed as the most inventive fictional debut in years, buzzing with energy and ideas, and Beauman's second novel keeps up the pace - Tatler I hugely enjoyed Ned Beauman's clever-dick conflation of modern east London with Thirties Berlin . . . the antihero Egon Loeser is as deft and witty a portrait of blinkered self-obsession as I have read - Nick Curtis, Evening StandardBooks of the Year THE TELEPORTATION ACCIDENT is a hilarious picaresque that begins in Thirties Berlin (though one so littered with ketamine, haircuts and sad young literary men that it could pass for Dalston in 2012) . . . Beauman manages to be seriously intelligent and seriously funny at the same time - Tim Martin, Daily Telegraph Books of the Year Funny and startlingly inventive . . . Beauman is a writer of prodigious talent, and there are enough ideas and allusions and comic set pieces in this work, longlisted for the 2012 Man Booker Prize, to fill myriad lesser novels. - FT [Beauman] is blisteringly funny, witty and erudite . . . Beauman manages to combine the intrigue of a thriller with the imagery of a comedy. It makes for an excellent read. - Daily Telegraph