The Gone Away World

3 months ago 06th Jun 12:57

‘It’s a story about friendship and love (and ninjas). It features battles, alarms, terrible upheavals, and disasters. In case that sounds distressing, you should know that it also contains digressions and disquisitions; showdowns and throwdowns; monsters, marvels and miracles.  More than anything, I wanted this book to be fun. I wanted it to be more fun than the other things you could usefully be doing with your time. I wanted it to be a book which would keep you up late and make you call in sick because you wanted to finish it. I wanted this book to steal your day.’ Nick Harkaway

It’s the world. But not as you know it…

The Jorgmund Pipe is the backbone of the world, and it's on fire. Gonzo Lubitsch, professional hero and troubleshooter, is hired to put it out - but there's more to the fire, and the Pipe itself, than meets the eye. The job will take Gonzo and his best friend, our narrator, back to their own beginnings and into the dark heart of the Jorgmund Company itself.

From rural childhood in Cricklewood Cove to military service in a bewildering foreign war; from Jarndice University to the sawdust of the Nameless Bar; their story is the story of the Gone-Away World. It is the history of a friendship stretched beyond its limits; a tale of love and loss; of ninjas, pirates, politics; of curious heroism in strange and dangerous places.

Equal parts raucous adventure, comic odyssey, geek nirvana, and cool epic, this is The Gone-Away World.

Nick Harkaway was born in Cornwall in 1972. He studied philosophy, sociology, and politics at Clare College, Cambridge, and then worked in the film industry. He has trained in fencing, aikido, jujitsu, and kickboxing, and is notably bad at all of them. He lives in London with his wife, Clare. THE GONE-AWAY WORLD is his first novel.