Man on Fire

Stephen Kelman

ISBN 10: 1408865467 / ISBN 13: 9781408865460

Published by Bloomsbury, London, 2015

About this Item

A fine unread 1st impression in a fine dustwrapper. Signed and dated [11.08.2015] by the Author on the title page.

Seller Inventory # 007359

Bibliographic Details

• Title: Man on Fire
• Publisher: Bloomsbury, London
• Publication Date: 2015
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1408865467
• ISBN 13: 9781408865460
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition: First Edition
• Condition: New
• Dust Jacket Condition: New
• Signed: Signed by Author(s)
• Seller catalogs:
  • Modern Fiction

About this title

Synopsis

I was beating the life out of Bibhuti with a baseball bat when my first monsoon broke.

John Lock has come to India to meet his destiny: a destiny dressed in a white karate suit and sporting an impressive moustache. He has fled the quiet desperation of his life in England: decades wasted in a meaningless job, a marriage foundering in the wake of loss and a terrible secret he cannot bear to share with his wife.

He has come to offer his help to a man who has learned to conquer pain, a world record breaker who specialises in feats of extreme endurance and ill-advised masochism. Bibhuti Nayak's next record attempt - to have fifty baseball bats broken over his body - will set the seal on a career that has seen him rise from poverty to become a minor celebrity in a nation where standing out from the crowd requires tenacity, courage and perhaps a touch of madness. In answering Bibhuti's call for assistance, John hopes to rewrite a brave end to a life poorly lived.

But as they take their leap of faith together, and John is welcomed into Bibhuti's family, and into the colour and chaos of Mumbai - where he encounters ping-pong-playing monks, a fearless seven-year-old martial arts warrior and an old man longing for the monsoon to wash him away - he learns more about life, and death, and everything in between than he could ever have bargained for.

About the Author

Stephen Kelman was born in Luton in 1976. Pigeon English, his first novel, was shortlisted for the 2011 Man Booker Prize, the Desmond Elliott Prize and the Guardian First Book Award, and he was also shortlisted for the New Writer of the Year Award at the 2011 Galaxy National Book Awards. He lives in St Albans.

@stephen_kelman