Trading Futures

Author(s): Jim Powell

Fiction

'With his gallows humour and observational wit, Jim Powell gives us a vivid portrait of a man in meltdown.' Daily Mail When I was small, my mother showed me how to grow a carrot from a carrot. She filled a jam jar with water, cut the top off a carrot, ran a cocktail stick horizontally through the stub and suspended it over the jar, just touching the water. In time, roots sprouted, and when they were long enough and strong enough, the plant was translated to the garden and new carrots grew. This was one of the many exciting ways in which I was prepared for adult life. This is Matthew Oxenhay at sixty: a stranger to his wife, an embarrassment to his children, and failed former contender for the top job at his City firm. Seizing on his birthday party as an opportunity to deliver some rather crushing home truths to his assembled loved ones, it seems as though Matthew might have hit rock bottom. The truth, however, is that he has some way to go yet ...With forensic precision and mordant wit, Matthew unpicks the threads that bind him: a comfortable home in the suburbs, a career spent trading futures and a life that bears little resemblance to the one he imagined for himself at twenty. When he unexpectedly bumps into Anna (the one who got away), the stage is set for an epic unravelling. Darkly funny, Trading Futures forces us to confront how change, like death, is an inevitable fact of life: feared by most, it can transform or overwhelm us. This is a brilliantly observed novel, for fans of works such as John Lanchester's Mr Phillips and On Chesil Beach by Ian McEwan. It also featured as Radio 4's Book at Bedtime.

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The brilliantly observed and very witty story of one man's unravelling.

With his gallows humour and observational wit, Jim Powell gives us a vivid portrait of a man in meltdown. Daily Mail

Jim Powell was born in London in 1949. He is the author of one previous novel, The Breaking of Eggs, and was named by BBC2's 'The Culture Show' amongst '12 of The Best New Novelists' in 2011. He is currently studying for a PhD at the University of Liverpool and, with his wife Kay, divides his time between Northamptonshire, England, and the Tarn, France. Praise for The Breaking of Eggs: 'Moves cleverly between the comic, the serious and the terribly painful' Guardian 'A magnificent debut novel ... Haunting, quietly brilliant' Boston Globe 'A story of great emotional depth' Chicago Tribune 'Intriguing, skilfully written and wholly enjoyable' Sydney Morning Herald

General Fields

  • : 9781509806423
  • : Pan Macmillan
  • : Picador
  • : 0.283
  • : April 2016
  • : 185mm X 126mm
  • : United Kingdom
  • : April 2016
  • : books

Special Fields

  • : Jim Powell
  • : Hardback
  • : Main Market Ed.
  • : en
  • : 823.92
  • : 176