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The Man in the Moon

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The Man in the Moon

By: Andrew Barrow
Narrated by: John Sackville
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About this listen

Nostalgic, razor-sharp and deliciously peculiar, this is a weird but wonderful comedy of manners by the award-winning author of The Tap Dancer.

William is a lonely young man on the loose in the late 1960s. A disastrous appearance as a stand-up comic in a pub called The Man In the Moon is only the start of his adventures, in which he consorts with theatrical types, frenzied advertising men and accident-prone lodgers.

William’s exploits lead him eventually to the consulting rooms of a Harley Street psychiatrist, where his delusions that he is a comic genius can finally be laid bare.

©1996 Andrew Barrow (P)2024 HarperCollins Publishers
Classics Coming of Age Family Life Genre Fiction Literary Fiction Literature & Fiction Comedy

Critic reviews

‘Another splendidly surreal book from Mr Barrow’s pen . . . Beautifully written, with a splendid eye for the inconsequential detail’ Jennifer Paterson, Spectator

The Man in the Moon cuts a ripping tear through the elaborations of the current English tragi-comic novel’ Iain Finlayson, Financial Times

‘A splendid straight-faced comedy, not to be missed’ Penelope Fitzgerald, Evening Standard

‘Andrew Barrow’s deadpan wit and extraordinary ear for dialogue turn this short novel into a comic masterpiece’ Selina Hastings, Sunday Telegraph

‘Possibly the most misanthropic novel I’ve read since Gulliver’s Travels’ Lucy Atkins, Guardian

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