Product Description
Fourteen years ago Michael Ardenne dazzled the world with Ephesus, a brilliant debut that won him the respect of his peers, plenty of easy sex and the coveted Booker Prize. Since then, there’s been nothing but false starts and dead ends. He can’t even finish a short story. With debt collectors at the door, the cellar empty and the mortgage on the line, it’s crunch time. His wife, Tanya, issues an ultimatum: get a job or get a divorce. Forced into assessing his literary agent’s slush pile to help make ends meet, Michael discovers a dark gem. He rewrites it as his own. His publisher loves it. Fame beckons and his literary standing soars… until the real author appears. Slush Pile is a satire of literary ambition.
REVIEWS
“‘I am not a normal person. I am a writer,’ declares Michael Ardenne, the antihero of Ian Shadwell’s takedown of literary narcissism.” LINDA FUNNELL, The Newtown Review of Books
“…an utterly compelling manuscript.” ABC Radio
“This is the first novel from writer, musician and painter Ian Shadwell. It will appeal to writers, aspiring writers, publishing insiders and readers who enjoy satire.” PAULA GRUNSEIT, Bookseller and Publisher Magazine
“Shadwell has a finely-tuned comic touch and his creation of the arrogant, shambolic author is a delight.” THUY ON Sydney Morning Herald
“Slush Pile, Shadwell’s first novel, is a rollicking black comedy with an entertainingly unlikable main character. As this selfish, pleasure-seeking, pompous and arrogant man digs a hole for himself, due to the conviction that he is entitled to everything he imagines he could have, the reader both cringes and eggs him on, to see just how far he will go.” ANGELA MEYER, The Australian
“Beneath the laughs, meanwhile, Shadwell illuminates that perennial distinction between ‘literary fiction’ and a ‘page-turner … with broad appeal’.” DOUG WALLEN, Australian Book Review (paywalled)
