Big Nobody
The darkly funny new coming-of-age novel for fans of Bella Mackie and Derry Girls
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- $189.00
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- $189.00
Descripción editorial
A FIZZINGLY ORIGINAL COMING-OF-AGE STORY FOR FANS OF HOW TO KILL YOUR FAMILY
'Riotously funny, nostalgic and immensely touching.'
PANDORA SYKES
'Your new favourite novel.'
INDIA KNIGHT
'A debut that sparkles like Marc Bolan's eye makeup.'
GUARDIAN
For Constance ‘Connie’ Costa, life is just beginning. She dreams of leaving behind her dull, dreary life in ‘70s East London, shaking off her deeply embarrassing Greek-Cypriot community of interfering Aunties and pretend ‘cousins’, and running away with her best mate Vas (fellow misfit; NHS specs; soul of a poet). She is determined to take her rightful place alongside her hero, David Bowie, onstage at Wembley Stadium.
Only one thing stands in her way: her father, The Fat Murderer. No longer content with being an absolute imbecile and general abomination of nature, he has dialled up his campaign to ruin Connie’s life ever since the untimely death of her mother.
If she ever wants to claim the destiny that is rightfully hers, Connie has only one option left: to kill him.
Fizzingly original, disarmingly tender and laugh-out-loud funny, BIG NOBODY is a coming-of-age story about first love, first grief, and the long, painful journey to feeling like a somebody.
'Broke my heart one minute and had me really laughing the next.'
XOCHITL GONZALEZ, author of OLGA DIES DREAMING
'Hands down the funniest, most original novel I’ve read in ages.'
GRANT GINDER, author of THE PEOPLE WE HATE AT THE WEDDING
'Audacious and hilarious.'
RUMAAN ALAM, author of LEAVE THE WORLD BEHIND
READERS LOVE CONNIE COSTA . . .
'Poignant, authentic and darkly funny' *****
'Fabulous - I was rooting for Connie the whole way' *****
'Smart, funny, quirky' *****
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
A 40-something woman looks back on her awkward teen years in 1970s London in this bold, hilarious, and surprisingly moving debut. Kadis, a music industry veteran, peppers the narrative with references to the era's glam stars David Bowie and Marc Bolan, who capture the imagination of narrator Constance Costa and offer solace after she loses her British mother and brothers in a car accident. Constance blames her emotionally and physically abusive Greek father, whom she calls "The Fat Murderer," for the deaths, and reels from his "jealousy and psychotic need for control." While fearing she might be her school's "freak," she plots ways to kill her father, and takes in conflicting advice from the imaginary voices of Bowie and Bolan. "If I had cared about what other people thought, I'd never have made ‘The Laughing Gnome,' " Bowie confides, while Bolan presses her to go to the school disco ("you gotta funk or be square"). Meanwhile, she regularly attends her community's Greek Night, or, as Constance calls it, "Freak Night," with the other Greek families in the area. After kissing a boy there, she wonders if things might turn around for her. Kadis successfully balances the dark material with Constance's teen ebullience and whimsy. In this joyful novel, being a "freak" means wielding a double-edged sword.
