The Bad Book Affair
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- $12.99
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- $12.99
Publisher Description
The Bad Book Affair features the magnificently hapless Israel Armstrong – the duffle-coat wearing, navel-gazing Jewish librarian who solves crimes, mysteries, and domestic problems whilst driving a mobile library around the north coast of Ireland.
In The Bad Book Affair Israel finds himself on the verge of his thirtieth birthday and on the trail of a troubled missing teenager, the daughter of a local politician.
Why has the young woman disappeared? Does it have something to do with Israel’s lending her A Clockwork Orange and Lady Chatterly’s Lover from the library’s special ‘Unshelved’ category? Will the young woman’s father run Israel out of town? How will Israel recover from his own break-up with his girlfriend, Gloria? And how exactly does a Jewish vegetarian celebrate his thirtieth birthday in Tumdrum? With a bacon scone?
And will Israel and his irascible companion Ted ever agree about anything?
Reviews
Praise for ‘The Delegate’s Choice’:
'This is Israel’s third outing and it is a pleasure to welcome him back – these are blissful British comedies for the thinking escapist.’ Kate Saunders, The Times
Praise for the ‘Case of the Missing Books’:
‘A mystery, a sustained piece of slapstick, a meditation and a yarn. And it is cripplingly funny.’ Independent
‘Sansom has struck a rich comic seam … it promises to be a very enjoyable series.’ Observer
‘A perfect antidote for melancholy.’ Guardian
Praise for ‘Mr Dixon Disappears’:
'Israel is one of the most original and amusing amateur sleuths around…’ The Times
'Bibliophiles will instinctively warm to Israel Armstrong, Jewish librarian, duffel-coat wearer and part-time detective. The fact that he drives his mobile library around the coast of Northern Ireland, moaning non-stop about people who do not return books on time, only makes the character more deliciously esoteric. This yarn about an ageing magician who has gone missing with £100,000 is the second in what promises to be a must-read series.' Sunday Telegraph
About the author
Ian Sansom writes for the ‘Guardian’ and the ‘London Review of Books’. His he is the author of six books including,‘The Case of the Missing Books’, ‘Mr Dixon Disappears’ and ‘The Delegates Choice’, the first three instalments of The Mobile Library series. He lives in Northern Ireland.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
In Sansom's satiric fourth mobile library mystery (after 2008's The Book Stops Here), Israel Armstrong, an English Jewish vegetarian mobile librarian and amateur sleuth, embarks on yet another bumblingly endearing case in Tumdrum, "on the northernmost coast of the north of the north of Northern Ireland." The day after Israel allows 14-year-old Lyndsay Morris to borrow a "bad book" (i.e., Philip Roth's American Pastoral), Lyndsay, daughter of prominent Unionist candidate Maurice Morris, disappears. The coincidence is enough to make Israel suspect in the eyes of his boss, Linda Wei, a lesbian Chinese single mother, as well as the police and a nosy newspaper reporter. Never mind the thin plot and minimal detection. Sansom uses the na ve Israel to poke fun at politics, religion, prejudice, and pretensions of all sorts. Readers will particularly enjoy the passages devoted to the efforts to keep books like American Pastoral out of the hands of the young and impressionable.
