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Madness is Better than Defeat

On sale

24th August 2017

Price: £16.99

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Selected: Hardcover / ISBN-13: 9781473613584

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This is one of the most purely enjoyable novels I’ve read in years – by turns sad, moving, thoughtful, intriguing, clever, enlightening, surprising and laugh-out-loud funny – which is more than enough. I can’t think of any type of reader who wouldn’t enjoy it’ Irish Independent

‘It reminded me of a Coen brothers film… I found it enchanting, and I was happy to turn every page… I really enjoyed it’ Tom Sutcliffe, BBC Radio 4 Saturday Review

Conspiracy, insanity, ingenuity and adventure collide in the new novel by the Man Booker-longlisted, Granta Best of Young British Novelist Ned Beauman. #MadnessIsBetter

In 1938, two rival expeditions set off for a lost Mayan temple in the jungles of Honduras, one intending to shoot a screwball comedy on location there, the other to disassemble the temple and ship it back to New York. A seemingly endless stalemate ensues, and twenty years later a rogue CIA agent sets out to exploit it as a geopolitical pawn – unaware that the temple is the locus of grander conspiracies than anyone could have imagined.

Showcasing the anarchic humour, boundless imagination and unparalleled prose of one of the finest writers of his generation, this is a masterful novel that teases, entertains and dazzles in equal measure.

PRAISE FOR NED BEAUMAN

A Granta Best Young British Novelist

‘Seriously funny and seriously intelligent at the same time’ Daily Telegraph

‘Dazzlingly inventive’ The Times

‘A singular, and almost recklessly gifted, young writer’ Time

‘A force to be acknowledged in the here and now’ Dazed and Confused

‘Gobsmackingly clever’ Vanity Fair

‘Playful, arresting, unnerving opulent, rude and – above all – deliciously, startlingly, exuberantly fresh’ Guardian

#MadnessIsBetter

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Reviews

Mail on Sunday
Beauman's fourth novel provides his usual humour, oddities, convolutions and impressive writing.
Tim Martin, New Statesman
A teaming shaggy-dog comedy of megalomania and obsession . . . Beauman is a sparkling writer, and his book bustles with diverting micro-narratives . . . A novel of great intelligence and humour, cleverly structured and brimming with tricks . . . a tremendous rainbow
Tatler
Typically quirky . . . Zany and sprawling
Bookriot
Wildly original . . . Madness could easily become a confusing mess but Beauman manages to keep the narrative consistently focused and engaging. This madcap ride about the eccentricities of humans will keep you entertained till the last page
Daily Mail
A fun madcap mystery
David Patrikarakos, Spectator
Dazzling . . . his best to date . . . If there is one adjective that describes Beauman's prose it is 'buoyant' - a quality which allows the reader to get through a long book with little effort, and the author to carry the considerable heft of his intelligence lightly. And it is a roaming intelligence.
Cal Revely-Calder, Guardian
Beauman has a gift: he's a natural comic writer. (I've only read one funnier book this year)
Darragh McManus, Irish Independent
Almost perfect . . . This is one of the most purely enjoyable novels I've read in years - by turns sad, moving, thoughtful, intriguing, clever, enlightening, surprising and laugh-out-loud funny - which is more than enough. I can't think of any type of reader who wouldn't enjoy it: whether your thing is genre, literary or, like this, a fizzling, sparking, sparkling mixture of the two.
Kevin Power, Literary Review
Madness is Better than Defeat is a Swiss watch: there isn't a single moving part out of place . . . The jokes are superb . . . a zestful romp? Undoubtedly. But that doesn't quite do justice to the experience of reading Madness is Better than Defeat. The book is certainly a literary performance of a high order . . . The clockwork runs beautifully. Every paragraph gives pleasure.
Inua Ellams, BBC Radio 4 Saturday Review
I am really enjoying it . . . I have no clue what's going to happen when I turn the page
Tom Sutcliffe, BBC Radio 4 Saturday Review
It reminded me of a Coen brothers film . . . I found it enchanting, and I was happy to turn every page . . . I really enjoyed it
Carl Wilkinson, Financial Times
Wildly plotted, comedic . . . One senses that behind the vivacious plotting and baroque characterisation, Beauman's purpose is to question the "madness" of artistic endeavor . . . he emerges from his latest expedition triumphant.
Sunday Telegraph
Beauman writes with rare and bizarre brilliance