Product Description

What can you do to feel safe in a dangerous world? When Rob Saunders witnesses a young Japanese student commit suicide, he impulsively takes the folder she dropped as she threw herself under a tube train. He finds himself taking souvenirs from a series of tragic or threatening events, at the same time initiating an edgy affair with a work colleague. His behaviour becomes increasingly obsessive. The lines blur between witnessing, seeking out, and initiating tragedy. Things spiral out of control when he discovers a dead body while he's jogging in the woods. Stylistically bold, technically accomplished, this fast-paced pageturner explores the anxieties and survival strategies of a post-9/11 world.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #610261 in Books
• Published on: 2006-05-02
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 224 pages

Ian Hocking, Spike Magazine, 29 March, 2006
"There is much to recommend in this novel. Morris can write, and write well."

Alan Roche, Jai Clare’s blog, May 17, 2006
"Full marks to Macmillan New Writing for publishing this novel. . . an excellent novel and one I would recommend."

Elizabeth Baines, Fiction Bitch, October 26, 2006
"a book which opens up your perceptions, challenges your assumptions and
makes you think about language."

Customer Reviews

Powerful and gripping debut
This novel is a tour de force of sparse and powerful writing. The reader sees the main character, Rob, go through a series of shocking experiences which highlight his vulnerability as a human and the way in which everyday objects can prove either a threat or a comfort.

The style of writing reminded me very much of Murakami, particularly in the way objects take on their own life and exert their effect on the life of the characters, but the tone in this context is more appropriately English and spare.

In some ways, the novel is very bleak and emphasises the fragility of the apparent normality we live with. This aspect is made even more evident by the clever and subtle use of the multi-viewpoint, although each character does (in the manner of a Greek chorus) serve to highlight the issues raised in Rob's story too.

That said, despite the bleakness, there is hope and a way through the jaggedness of modern life. The end of the book is very powerful and also uplifting, and the sense of catharsis is extremely satisfying indeed. I would certainly recommend this book and look forward with great interest to Morris' next.

Buying Time
Taking Comfort is a stylish and compelling first novel, original yet reader friendly. You won't have encountered anything quite like it before. Amongst many other things the book explores the complex interaction between the notions of comfort and discomfort in modern society, how we take comfort in the solidity and sexiness of products, use this slim consolation as a cushion against the randomness and tragedy of a world we know too much about and can control too little. The everyday reality of the central character in the novel begins to fracture over the course of a few days. Bad things happen around him. Very bad things. How is he to cope? How is he to take comfort? And what about the hooded murderer with the hammer?

I enjoyed Taking Comfort enormously. It's an excellent novel. Give it a go.

A Rattling Good Read
Roger Morris's first published novel is a joy to read. In a world of literary mediocrity, a well crafted, sharp piece of work is utterly refreshing. Not just a thriller, it is so much more - a comment on our times of galloping consumerism. I found the book a real page turner - I really couldn't put this one down. I would thoroughly recommend it and am eagerly anticipating Morris's next novel.