The dark, doomy humour of Care of Wooden Floors mixed with the fantastical, anarchic sense of possibility of The Way Inn, brought together in a fast moving story set in contemporary London.
Jack Bick is an interview journalist at a glossy lifestyle magazine. From his office window he can see a black column of smoke in the sky, the result of an industrial accident on the edge of the city. When Bick goes from being a high-functioning alcoholic to being a non-functioning alcoholic, his life goes into freefall, the smoke a harbinger of truth, an omen of personal apocalypse. An unpromising interview with Oliver Pierce, a reclusive cult novelist, unexpectedly yields a huge story, one that could save his job. But the novelist knows something about Bick, and the two men are drawn into a bizarre, violent partnership that is both an act of defiance against the changing city, and a surrender to its spreading darkness.
With its rich emotional palette, Plume explores the relationship between truth and memory: personal truth, journalistic truth, novelistic truth. It is a surreal and mysterious exploration of the precariousness of life in modern London.
| ISBN: | 9780008194444 |
| Publication date: | 5th March 2020 |
| Author: | Will Wiles |
| Publisher: | 4th Estate an imprint of HarperCollins Publishers |
| Format: | Paperback |
| Pagination: | 370 pages |
| Genres: |
Modern and Contemporary Fiction Metaphysical / philosophical fiction Satirical fiction and parodies Narrative theme: Identity / belonging Narrative theme: Sense of place Narrative theme: Social issues Contemporary lifestyle fiction |