Tod. T. Friendly is living his life backwards. Doctor Friendly has just died, but after weeks of improving in the hospital, he is sent home to his affable, melting-pot, primary-colour existence in suburban America. From the fresh-cut lawns of his retirement to the hustle of New York, and then the boat back to war-torn Europe, Friendly carries with him a secret. Trapped in his body from grave to cradle, Friendly's consciousness can only watch as he struggles to make sense of the good doctor's most ambitious project yet - the final solution.
'Amis's backwards world is rigorously imagined. It is a world of pathos and cruel hilarity - but the crux, the test of his vision, is what he does with Auschwit'z - Guardian
'The devastatingly sustained black irony stands comparison with Swift's A Modest Proposal. It is, I think, Amis's finest achievement to date' - Financial Times
'Extraordinary - Ironic inversion is essentially a comic device, but its trickery here yields results that are rigorously grave' - Independent on Sunday
'An icy, hard read - Amis is at his intriguing, powerful and heedful best' - Time Out
'Amis's most daring and ambitious novel' - Daily Telegraph
Author
About Martin Amis
Martin Amis is the author of ten novels, two collections of stories and six collections of non-fiction. He lives in London.
