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  • Whatever Happened to Harold Absalon? See large image

    Whatever Happened to Harold Absalon? (Paperback) By (author) Simon Okotie

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    Short Description for Whatever Happened to Harold Absalon? Harold Absalon, the Mayor's Transport Advisor, has gone missing. Down-at-heel detective Marguerite is trying to find him. Aware that his every action is being monitored by those reading the novel, Marguerite's mind and world is at constant risk of disintegration.
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  • Full bibliographic data for Whatever Happened to Harold Absalon?

    Title
    Whatever Happened to Harold Absalon?
    Authors and contributors
    By (author) Simon Okotie
    Physical properties
    Format: Paperback
    Number of pages: 202
    Width: 128 mm
    Height: 198 mm
    Thickness: 16 mm
    Weight: 312 g
    Audience
    General/trade
    Language
    English
    ISBN
    ISBN 13: 9781907773341
    ISBN 10: 1907773347
    Classifications
    Nielsen BookScan Product Class: F1.1
    BISAC category code: FIC000000
    BICMainSubject: FA
    Publisher
    Salt Publishing
    Imprint name
    Salt Publishing
    Publication date
    15 October 2012
    Publication City/Country
    Cambridge/GB
    Biographical note
    Simon Okotie was born to Nigerian/English parents. His autobiographical first novel about growing up in rural Norfolk was a runner-up for the 1998 Saga Prize for black British fiction. He has a First Class engineering degree and Master's degrees in Philosophy and Transport Planning. He lives in London.
    Promotional headline
    I love your novel… It's very bold … experimental but accessible. -- Nicholas Royle You embark on this book expecting a certain fictional route, then notice the author has taken a wrong turning, then another… Do you jump off, or stay on and enjoy the slow-motion ride and new perspectives? Okotie here takes the art of digression to a new, surprising and witty level. -- David Rose
    Review quote
    … charming and fresh; indeed, the only recent comparable fiction would be Will Self's Booker-shortlisted "Umbrella", which also features a prolonged, digressive sequence set on a London bus. Simon Okotie's book will receive less attention, but it is equally audacious, and in its own, low-key way, just as compelling. -- David Evans Financial Times Okotie's protagonist, Marguerite, is an investigator (of some kind) charged (by someone) with following the wife of Harold Absalon after the disappearance (perhaps) of her husband. Hardly a nail-biting procedural, the action such as it is goes no further than up and down in an elevator and onto a bus--a timespan of a few minutes, at most. It's a marvel of compression, not in the manner of Jean Echenoz and others who strip the detective novel down to its bones, but by taking a few minor, even meaningless moments of a larger investigation and exploding them to the point of rewarding absurdity. Necessary Fiction