The Gone-away World - Tapa dura

A wildly entertaining debut novel, introducing a bold new voice that combines antic humour with a stunning futuristic vision to give us an electrifyingly original version of the apocalypse. 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. Part adventure, part comic odyssey, and part geek nirvana, 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.