The Booklist: Out of Office
Sat at your desk dreaming of something different? A new life somewhere exotic? A job that’s not office-based drudgery? Take some inspiration from our publishers’ tales of new possibilities…
For Richer For Poorer, by Victoria Coren
In September 2006, Victoria Coren won a million dollars on the European Poker Tour. In this, her long-awaited memoir, Coren tells the story of that victory, but also of a twenty-year obsession with the game. It is a journey which has taken Coren from a secret culture of illegal cash games to the high-stakes glamour of Las Vegas and Monte Carlo, and brought with it friendship, laughter and money, but also loneliness, heart-break and defeat. With disarming honesty, Victoria Coren lays all of this bare.
For Richer, For Poorer also tells the story of the poker revolution. How did this cult card game, populated by a small community of colourful and eccentric players, move from the back streets to the mainstream in a few short years? It is a fascinating story from a trusted insider.
The New Life, by Orhan Pamuk
‘I read a book one day, and my whole life was changed.’
So begins The New Life, Orhan Pamuk’s fabulous road novel about a young student who yearns for the life promised by a dangerously magical book. He falls in love, abandons his studies, turns his back on home and family, and embarks on restless bus trips through the provinces, in pursuit of an elusive vision. This is a wondrous odyssey, laying bare the rage of an arid heartland. In coffee houses with black-and-white TV sets, on buses where passengers ride watching B-movies on flickering screens, in wrecks along the highway, in paranoid fictions with spies as punctual as watches, the magic of Pamuk’s creation comes alive.
A High-pitched Buzz, by Roger Longrigg
Henry Fenwick’s life is complicated. By day he works in advertising, throwing some (but not all) of his morals to the wind as he attempts success in the tangled, competitive world of his chosen profession. Through copy liaison sessions, difficult client meetings and endless office intrigue, it’s an exhausting world. By night, Henry attempts to seduce Elizabeth. And with rarified parties, Chelsea nightclubs and espresso coffee bars to contend with, it’s no less fierce a challenge.
Published originally in 1956, A High-pitched Buzz was Roger Longrigg’s first novel. Written with sharp insight and sparklingly funny prose and laced with wickedly accurate dialogue, it’s a remarkabe and highly entertaining debut.
Inglorious, by Joanna Kavenna
Rosa Lane is a dynamic journalist in her thirties, already the picture of London achievement. Her handsome boyfriend is something in politics and her other friends are confident, prosperous and ambitious. But one afternoon soon after the death of her mother, staring at her computer screen at work, she fails to see the point, walks out of her job – and begins her long fall from modern grace.
Within days, this smart, educated woman is dependent on the patience and charity of her friends. She soon finds that most of them – especially her best friend – are far less supportive than she had imagined. What’s more, she simply cannot understand their beliefs and desires anymore.
What happens next is comic and unbearable, as Rosa tries to find work, to wade through the great literature that she has never read (and never will), to appease her bank manager and to feel the excitement of a hopeless affair. When she visits old friends in the Lakes she descends into a pit of benevolent, fecund domesticity. Meanwhile, her ex and his unctuous lover announce their marriage . . .
