Please

In short, sharp episodes, Please chronicles the life of a young man who drifts through a hallucinatory urban world filled with celebrity wannabes, addictive relationships and jobs that demand he become someone else. The only thing he cares about is finding his ex-wife, who seems to exist only in his memories now. This terse, savage debut fuses the quiet desperation of Raymond Carver with the absurdity and media-savvy irony of Quentin Tarantino. At the same time, Please has a compassionate heart: It’s a moving portrait of one man’s attempt to embrace something real in his life. Here’s an X-ray of our times from a writer of extraordinary restraint, skill and wit.

- "Hilarious social satire of daily life among the young and nihilistic … a winner of a debut” — Kirkus Reviews (starred review)

- “Darbyshire plumbs the murky regions of the soul in a novel of dark brilliance.” — Booklist

- “a consummate critique of all the creeping human weaknesses, counterfeit values and trend-driven desires that steadily erode our hopes for meaning and purpose” — The Globe and Mail

- Winner of Canada's ReLit Award for best alternative novel