The lives of five strangers collide on a London train carriage, as they become involved in a terrifying event that will change them all forever. A shocking, intensely emotive and wildly original new thriller from Will Carver…
A disillusioned nurse suddenly learns how to care.
An injured young sportsman wakes up find that he can see only in black and white.
A desperate old widower takes too many pills and believes that two angels have arrived to usher him through purgatory.
Two agoraphobic men called Dave share the symptoms of a brain tumour, and frequently waken their neighbour with their ongoing rows.
Separate lives, running in parallel, destined to collide and then explode. Like the suicide bomber, riding the Circle Line, day after day, waiting for the right time to detonate, waiting for answers to his questions: Am I God? Am I dead? Will I blow up this train?
Shocking, intensely emotive and wildly original, Will Carver’s The Daves Next Door is an explosive existential thriller and a piercing examination of what it means to be human … or not.
Book Info: Print Length: 335 pages. Publisher: Orenda. Publication Date: 21 July 2022
About the Author:
Will Carver is the international bestselling author of the January David series. He spent his early years in Germany, but returned to the UK at age eleven, when his sporting career took off. He turned down a professional rugby contract to study theatre and television at King Alfred’s, Winchester, where he set up a successful theatre company. He currently runs his own fitness and nutrition company, and lives in Reading with his two children. Will’s latest title published by Orenda Books, The Beresford is out in July. His previous title Hinton Hollow Death Trip was longlisted for the Not the Booker Prize, while Nothing Important Happened Today was longlisted for the Theakston’s Old Peculier Crime Novel of the Year. Good Samaritans was book of the year in Guardian, Telegraph and Daily Express, and hit number one on the ebook charts.
My Review:
Firstly, a huge thanks to Orenda and Anne Cater for the invitation to join the blogtour for The Daves Next Door.
So, that was the easy part of this review. You know those books that you start and think “aha I know what’s happening” or the stories that slowly begin to make sense, or the characters that you can see straight through? Well The Daves Next Door is NOTHING like those books.
This is one seriously messed up, highly original, confusing as hell, what the actual f**k stories with a huge “HUH??” after every chapter. If you haven’t read any of Will Carver’s books before than simply expect the unexpected, don’t have any preconceptions and keep a very open mind.
You should, however, prepare to be shocked, surprised, moved, confused, horrified and amused in equal measures.
I’m not even going to bother to tell you what the book is about because a) the blurb above says it so much better than I can and b) I’m still in shock and really don’t know how to put my thoughts down in writing that would make any sense.
I have said in all my previous reviews about Will Carver that he is one sick, twisted bunny and a literary genuis and this book confirms my thoughts once again.
Astonishingly clever, thought-provoking profound and Mr Carver’s unique observational comments are utterly brilliant.
Enough from me… here are some of my favourite Carverisms:
If a butterfly can cause a tornado, if something so small can have such a giant effect, what, then, is the effect of the tornado?
And what’s the deal with people saying things like, ‘I say what I mean, and if you don’t like it then you can fuck off?’ Is freedom of speech now freedom to be a dick?
There is no chance of abolishing religion, but could they not have an update? If your computer or mobile phone starts running slowly, don’t you delete a few files and check for the latest version of the operating system? Could this not be applied to everything?
Do you ever persist with a novel that hasn’t gripped you within the first twenty pages? Is there some intrinsic reward to this persistence? Is it another case of how we all need instant gratification?
Who told the world that chocolate and orange belong together?
Did you know that, in America, six people a year are killed because they were shot … by their dog? Would you wear a T-shirt that said, ‘Guns don’t kill people, dogs do’?
