Joe Speedboat

Tommy Wieringa (trans. Sam Garrett)

'[A] brilliant coming-of-age story with an outlandish twist … There are more coming-of-age novels than dikes in Holland, but this wonderfully weird novel is not one to miss.'

Publishers Weekly

'The triumph and tragedy that pepper the story feel authentically random, though the familiar coming-of-age structure lends the book a directionless, episodic feel … Wieringa’s tale takes on the feel of a good road-trip novel perfectly suited to his cast of eccentrics. The setting of rural Holland is convincingly rendered, and the low-key freakishness (think Garp) keeps things at just the right degree of weird.'

Booklist

View all reviews

'[An] offbeat story of a group of boys searching for meaning . . . This work conjures John Irving’s A Prayer for Owen Meany but with a lighter touch.'

Library Journal

'Winsome … Wieringa’s protagonist, Frankie, has an attitude attune to Holden Caulfield, without the anxiety and the quirks … [Frankie’s] unwavering and confident … in-your-face voice … applies literature to life, lyrically, with an attention to minutiae … Charismatic, intelligent, he’s the kinetic energy that thrusts the narrative forward.'

Bookslut

'A wonderfully eccentric and uproariously funny novel.'

Books Quarterly

'A lovely book, full of eccentricity and charm.'

Book Bag

Praise for Tommy Wieringa:

‘The best contemporary novels are a quest made out of literary and moral ambition. Those who have successfully pursued this Holy Grail in recent times are Bolaño with his The Savage Detectives, Sebald in Austerlitz, Coetzee with Disgrace and the late Philip Roth. From now on, to that august list must be added the name of Tommy Wieringa.’

Le Figaro

'Never just another would-be inspirational read about overcoming adversity, Wieringa’s novel offers a rewarding journey into the unfamiliar. It is also witty, thoughtful and surprisingly tender as Frankie comes to realise that he has got a life to live that is still worth the living.'

The Independent

When Frankie Hermans emerges from a coma after 200 days, he knows his life is never going to be the same again. For a start, he can’t talk, he can’t walk and it’s a struggle even to wield a pen. And then there’s Joe Speedboat?—?a boy who arrived in the sleepy village of Lomark like a blazing comet and who’s been stirring things up ever since. Whether setting off bombs, racing mopeds or building a bi-plane, Joe has the touch of a magician and the spirit of a daredevil. He also sees a use for Frankie’s good right arm beyond writing: as a champion arm-wrestler Frankie will be strong enough to impress his friends, and maybe even win the favour of the gorgeous, golden-haired girl who has them all in a spin. Full of vitality, verve and chutzpah, Joe Speedboat tells the fast-paced story of an unlikely friendship between two boys, and of their lightning dash towards adulthood.

'[A] brilliant coming-of-age story with an outlandish twist … There are more coming-of-age novels than dikes in Holland, but this wonderfully weird novel is not one to miss.'

Publishers Weekly

Booklist

View all reviews

'[An] offbeat story of a group of boys searching for meaning . . . This work conjures John Irving’s A Prayer for Owen Meany but with a lighter touch.'

Library Journal

Bookslut

'A wonderfully eccentric and uproariously funny novel.'

Books Quarterly

'A lovely book, full of eccentricity and charm.'

Book Bag

Praise for Tommy Wieringa:

Le Figaro

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Details

Format:Paperback

Size: 198mm × 129mm

Extent:336pp

ISBN (13):9781925228175

RRP:£8.99

Pub date:14 Jan 2016

Rights Held: World ex USA, UK & Commonwealth

High-res cover:Download Image

AWARDS

2017 Australian Book Design Awards, Series - Short-listed

CATEGORIES / tags

AUTHOR

Tommy Wieringa

Tommy Wieringa was born in 1967 and grew up partly in the Netherlands, and partly in the tropics. He began his writing career with travel stories and journalism, and is the author of several internationally bestselling novels. His fiction has been longlisted for the Booker International Prize, shortlisted for the International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award and the Oxford/Weidenfeld Prize, and has won Holland’s Libris Literature Prize.

TRANSLATOR

Sam Garrett

Sam Garrett has translated some fifty novels and works of nonfiction. He has won prizes and appeared on shortlists for some of the world’s most prestigious literary awards, and is the only translator to have twice won the British Society of Authors’ Vondel Prize for Dutch–English translation.

News

Scribe UK renews with a trio of key authors

17 July 2017

Marina Benjamin, Jeremy Gavron and Tommy Wieringa will all publish new…

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The 65th Austalian Book Design Awards 2017 shortlist was announced this…

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Tommy Wieringa was born in 1967 and grew up partly in the Netherlands,…

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Sam Garrett has translated some fifty novels and works of nonfiction.…

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Joe Speedboat

Tommy Wieringa (trans. Sam Garrett)

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