In store now! Insignificance, by James Clammer
Joseph, a workaday plummer, is trying to focus on getting back to work after a mental breakdown after his son attempted to kill his wife.
Breathlessly told over the course of one day, Insignificance finds Joseph under the sink, trying to fit brass tubes and flashing around the sink of his wife’s friend, when, seemingly out of the pale blue sky, his son re-appears…
Written with clarity and empathy by Clammer, Insignificance is both a beautiful evocation of the mind of a vulnerable, awkward, and ultimately normal man, as well as a master-class in tension and linguistic precision. An unforgettable novel, from one of the UK’s most promising new voices.
Follow James Clammer on Twitter @JamesClammer and keep up with news from Galley Beggar Press here @GalleyBeggars
Order your copy today directly through October Books or buy online through our bookshop store and we’ll get a commission on your purchase.
Insignificance by James Clammer
Paperback £9.99
JOSEPH is trying to focus on a plumbing job he is doing for his wife’s friend, but is distracted by the terrible things that have been happening within his family.
Joseph believes that his son has tried to kill his wife.
Joseph is afraid his son will try again.
Joseph is also terrified that his wife is going to leave him. And that he himself may not get through the day.
Insignifcance, James Clammer’s first novel for adults, unfurls over the course of a single day. Placing the reader right inside the head of its struggling narrator, it works double time, both as an act of empathy - a taste of the uncertainty and awkwardness of one vulnerable man, and his relationship with the world - and also as a tense, emotional and gripping drama.
Exploring the burdens of mental health as well as family life, as well as a particular illness called Capgras Syndrome (a condition in which someone comes to believe that a person close to them has been replaced by an imposter) - Insignificance is a deeply human story, a novel that portrays the thoughts of one working man on his own terms, without artifice or condescension… and a novel that takes us ever closer to the edge.
Order your copy today directly from October Books or buy online through our bookshop store and we’ll get commission on your purchase.
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