Product Description

This title introduces Israel Armstrong, one of literature's most unlikely detectives in the first of a series of novels from the author of the critically acclaimed "Ring Road". Israel is an intelligent, shy, passionate, sensitive sort of soul: he's Jewish; he's a vegetarian; he could maybe do with losing a little weight. And he's just arrived in Ireland to take up his first post as a librarian. But the library's been shut down and Israel ends up stranded on the North Antrim coast driving an old mobile library. There's nice scenery, but 15,000 fewer books than there should be. Who on earth steals that many books? How? When would they have time to read them all? And is there anywhere in this godforsaken place where he can get a proper cappuccino and a decent newspaper? Israel wants answers...

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #46714 in Books
• Published on: 2006-02-06
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 336 pages

Review
REVIEWS FOR RING ROAD: 'A Tristram Shandy for our times... The tone is part elegy, part satire, part howl and very, very funny. I laughed more times than I can remember over a novel for years ... Ring Road is well-observed and endlessly inventive, with all the messiness of a real place. Sansom's deadpan voice throws up jokes on every page.' Observer 'Calls to mind two other outstanding novels: Tristram Shandy...and Joseph Heller's Catch-22... One of those rare books that, once picked up, proves very difficult to put down.' The Irish Independent 'Wonderfully vivid, easy, natural, funny and moving.' Oliver Sacks 'A wonderfully comic novel.' Daily Mail 'It reminds me most of Jerome K. Jerome... Mellow, intelligent and very funny, a perfect antidote for melancholy.' Michael Moorcok, Guardian 'There is something fearless in the gaze Sansom turns on banality, and this novel is, in the end, a surprisingly gripping feat of coming to terms with what ordinary life is like.' TLS

A hapless librarian scours the picturesque Irish countryside for missing tomes. London bibliophile Israel Armstrong arrives at the small Northern Ireland town of Tumdrum full of idealistic anticipation about brightening the lives of the dim local yokels. His spirits are dampened when he finds the library closed and is summoned to a meeting with bureaucrat Linda Wei. She officiously informs him that he's been reassigned to the Mobile Learning Centre (bookmobile) as an Outreach Support Officer (driver). Just off the dole and with no other prospects, Israel accepts his fate: helping to refurbish the dilapidated vehicle while he lives on a rural farm inhabited by quirky characters. He does get to engage in some healthy flirting with farm girl George, a development that's especially welcome because his London girlfriend, Gloria, seems to cool with every crackly phone call. But he soon discovers that 15,000 volumes are missing. Thus begins a wild goose chase hither and yon. Israel turns up little but another possible love interest in Veronica, a sultry reporter who becomes George's instant nemesis. Discovering that the books have been reassigned to, or stolen by, other nearby libraries should be the end of Israel's troubles, but unfortunately it's only the beginning. A buoyant series kickoff. Veteran Sansom (The Impartial Recorder. 2004, etc.) writes with refreshing deftness and sharp wit. (Kirkus Reviews)

The Times
'Ian Samson is as expertly comic as his hero is comically inept, and he plots an ingenious course of mishaps...'

Independent
'cripplingly funny...Do not drink a beverage, of any description, while reading...You’ll just end up spilling it.'