Featured on The Book Show on Sky Arts on 22 April 2010.
The 'Unnamed' is the intriguing condition that afflicts Tim Farnsworth causing him to set off walking at unpredictable times, walking without any destination or desire to stop, until utter exhaustion stops him. How this effects him, his family and his work are all brought in to the mix. Why would a seemingly happy and successful man suddenly feel the need to just walk away from everything? Although sad and slightly disturbing this is a brilliant and moving novel about relationships and the everyday pressures of life. Very different from Ferris's first novel, Then We Came To The End, but equally enjoyable.
Joshua Ferris's The Unnamed has been hailed as 'the first great book of the decade' (GQ). In an America gone awry with strange weather, New York lawyer Tim Farnsworth suffers a peculiar affliction: the inability to stop walking. While his wife, Jane, struggles to keep their family together in the face of the unfathomable, Tim alone must battle to survive pitiless surroundings, encounters with hostile strangers, and the unrelenting demands of his own body. These challenges force Tim to ask life's most pressing questions, which he answers in a final return on foot across country to reunite with his wife and daughter. Stripped of all defences, and the sense of hope that lies at the very heart of the American dream, Farnsworth is compelled to confront the terrifying reality of what it is to be a human being. 'A writer almost uniquely in tune with modern life . . . Ferris's flashes of brilliance are many' Evening Standard 'Original, affecting. An almost unbearable love story, between remissions of intense connection and the human inevitability of parting, between the haven of marriage and all that lies beyond' Observer 'A stunner, an unnerving portrait of a man stripped of civilization's defenses' New Yorker Joshua Ferris was born in Illinois in 1974. He is the author of Then We Came to the End (2007), which was nominated for the National Book Award and longlisted for the Guardian First Book Award, and the highly acclaimed The Unnamed. In 2010 he was selected for the New Yorker's prestigious '20 under 40' list. His most recent novel, To Rise Again at a Decent Hour, was longlisted for the Man Booker Prize 2014 and the Dylan Thomas Prize 2014. He lives in New York.
