Wild Abandon

Ata once vibrant communal-living property in the British countryside,back-to-basics fervor has given way to a vague discontent. A place that oncebuzzed with activity, from the polytunnels to the pottery shed, now functionswith a skeleton crew. Founder Don Riley surveys his domain with the grim focusof someone who knows what's best for everyone-and isn't afraid to let themknow. Especially when those people are related to him.

Don'swife, Freya, can't quite decide whether not liking someone anymore is enoughreason to end a twenty-year marriage. So she decamps to a mud yurt in the woodsto mull it over. Their seventeen-year-old daughter, Kate, enrolls in school forthe first time in her life: the exotic new world of fellow teenagers andsurprisingly tasty cafeteria food beckons, and she is quickly lured into thearms of a "meathead" classmate. In his sister's absence, eleven-year-old Albertfalls under the spell of an outlandish new visitor to the community who fillshis head with strange notions of the impending end of the world.

Facedwith the task of rescuing his son from apocalyptic fantasies, his daughter fromthe clutches of suburbia, and his wife from her increasingly apparent desire toleave him, Don convinces himself that the only way to save the world he'screated is . . . to throw the biggest party of his life. Will anyone show up?

Fromthe acclaimed young author of Submarine, Wild Abandon is a strange andwonderful look at love-familial and romantic, returned and rebuffed-andthe people and places we choose to call home.

JoeDunthorne's first novel, Submarine, has beentranslated into ten languages and made into a feature film. His debut poetrycollection was published in 2010. He lives in London.

Praise for Wild Abandon

"A fresh perspective on modern culture, peppered with colorful dialogue."--Kirkus
"Manages to be both tender and biting . . . Wild Abandon never lapses into parody, because [Joe] Dunthorne doesn't scrimp on the small moments that make a character light up. . . . Truly laugh-out-loud hilarious."-The Independent on Sunday

"Has you wincing on [the protagonist's] behalf, page after page-turning page . . .Dunthorne does himself proud. [He draws] characters with real staying power."-The Evening Standard (London)

"Sublimely enjoyable."-Metro

"Full of finely nuanced details and a restless comic energy . . . builds to a fine apocalyptic climax."-The Guardian

"Wild Abandon is a very funny novel, but it's not quite a comic one. . . . There's a pathos here too. . . . From The Tempest to The Beach, everybody loves the tale of a flawed Utopia. [Wild Abandon] subverts the genre without even seemingly trying to. And it's hilarious. What's not to like?"-The Times

"[Dunthorne is] the British Dave Eggers."-GQ