All Quiet on the Orient Express: A 'hilariously surreal' novel from the Booker Prize-shortlisted author

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Mills's 2015 novel The Field of the Cloth of Gold was shortlisted for the 2015 Goldsmiths Prize. [7] Style [ edit ] Goldsmiths, University of London: Goldsmiths Prize shortlist – six works of fiction at its most novel, http://www.gold.ac.uk/news/goldsmiths-prize-shortlist-2015/. He gave me a funny look when I said this, but I wasn't bothered really because I thought his questioning was a bit too familiar. After all, I was only a temporary visitor passing though the area, who

We just discussed this book in our book club, and the group split in the same way as the reviewers here - some found it unique and gripping, and the rest found it hopelessly dull, and even frustrating (they kept willing the central character to DO SOMETHING). From our small sampling, it didn't appear that you have to be 'artsy fartsy' (as stated by another reviewer) to enjoy this book. All Quiet', in my opinion, credits the reader with being able to (a) fill in missing pieces of the story as needed and (b) let the story unfold by itself without trying to impose a particular direction on it. Of course the main character could leave if he wanted to. Of course he could tell Mr Parker to shove it. Of course he could demand his baked beans and custard creams from Mr Hodge. But then it wouldn't be the same book, and that's the point. Yes,' he said. `We like it very much. Of course, I've been here all my life, so I don't know any different.' doing -- her homework. For a while, each task will be the last; after finishing it, the narrator fully intends to mount his motorbike and head off on his great adventure.

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Well, factory's probably the wrong word,' I said. `It was recycling oil drums. You know, cleaning them out, getting rid of the dents, painting them up.' but the disadvantage of going for long walks was that I'd probably never meet anybody all day long. So that wasn't particularly attractive either. summer, and the locals would surely be used to outsiders by now. Yet just because a stranger was painting someone's gate, he immediately came under local scrutiny. I've got to say it was strangely readable despite the intentionally sparse dialogue and simple narrative style. The author had a clever way of putting little odd things in here and there that made me want to keep reading till the end- to find out if there were answers (and there were. At the very, very end. To a few questions anyway). World News Network: Book Review: Three Novels by Magnus Mills, Published: 20 September 2009, Uploaded: 19 June 2011.

Magnus Mills has a keen eye for human nature, and his portrayal of the narrator as a nice bloke who doesn’t want to offend anybody is beautifully realised. As the agendas of the locals begin to become clear, the narrator’s desire to please and to fit in becomes squirmingly realistic. To the reader, it’s obvious that the character is being exploited by almost everybody he meets; the narrator, however, attempts to rationalise and excuse the situation, consoling himself with the thought that his predicament is strictly temporary. Carey Harrison in the San Francisco Chronicle commented, "It's not out of idle amusement that the sweetly fiendish author has named his book All Quiet on the Orient Express. This marriage of famous titles hides from view (yet points to) its dark, telling twin: Murder on the Western Front. Not since Kafka has an author lured his audience so innocently, so beguilingly, into hell." [2] I thought I'd better catch you before you go,' he said. `Expect you'll be leaving today, will you?' Not that I had much time to examine my surroundings in detail. Within moments of my arrival he'd come down the steps to join me. tedious day. The result is a fine and funny novel that says some provocative things about class and work in the British Isles.

The projected journey to the East, which never takes place, because of the narrator's susceptibility to manipulation, stands for all the goals and aspirations which are delayed and lost in the compromises of the workaday world. (...) Mills's novel never approaches the contortions and excesses of Kafka's, nor, unfortunately, is it as funny as The Restraint of Beasts. It is wryly amusing and offbeat, reminiscent of a fable or a children's story in its simplicity." - Sam Gilpin, Times Literary Supplement Well, I was only there temporary but I should think you'd need at least a hundred to make it worth while.'

Mills has also written two books of very short stories: Once in a Blue Moon and Only When the Sun Shines Brightly for Acorn Books. His experience as a bus driver informed the content of his 2009 novel The Maintenance of Headway, the title of which refers to keeping buses equally spaced on their routes. His 2011 novel A Cruel Bird Came to the Nest and Looked In depicts a kingdom whose king has gone missing without explanation, leaving an absurdist realm "lost in an English fairy-tale world." [6] morning, he had finally made his approach. I emerged from my tent, barefoot, and the conversation continued. Magnus Mills (born in 1954 in Birmingham) is an English fiction writer and bus driver. He is best known for his first novel, The Restraint of Beasts, which was shortlisted for the Booker Prize and praised by Thomas Pynchon. Oh, right,' said Mr Parker. `Well, when you're ready come up to the house and I'll sort you out some paint and suchlike.'A hard one to shelve, as it turns out. Gothic, but modern and quite light. Funny, but not in a humorous way. Weird, but not fantastic, eerie but without anything sinister. had gone home, yet the idea of spending another day motorcycling didn't really appeal to me. The alternative, of course, was going for a walk. There were miles and miles of footpaths going off in every direction all