Product Description

Winter, 1981, and fifteen-year-old Alistair Black is wrestling with the fierce power of his imagination. The boundaries between what is real and what is fantasy are dissolving to increasingly dangerous effect. And then he falls in love with Alice ...WHAT HAPPENS NOW is a mesmerizing story about love, fear and faith. Atmospheric, suspenseful and spiked with black humour, it confirms Jeremy Dyson as one of the most exciting and original writers of his generation.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #18035 in Books
• Published on: 2007-08-02
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 320 pages

Review
*'Absolutely first rate ? I read it in a single sitting. A complex, moving tale of lost innocence and past and present demons; sad, humane and gripping to the last page' Joanne Harris *'Dyson's one of those rare authors who can write from the heart while still creating something deceptively clever and complex' INDEPENDENT ON SUNDAY *'Never remotely predictable. With three pages to go, you still wonder how it can end ... will stay with you long after you have turned the last page' THE TIMES 'A beautiful Chinese box of a novel, propped up by pleasing symmetries' GUARDIAN 'Dyson's beautifully spun tale sucks you in completely: the loss of innocence is traumatic; exorcising our demons is paralysing and love hurts like hell' METRO 'WHAT HAPPENS NOW is never remotely predictable. With three pages to go, you still wonder how it can end ... [it] will stay with you long after you have turned the last page' THE TIMES 'It is poignant, partly nostalgic in the right way (if you liked THE ROTTERS CLUB ...), engrossing and by no means a local book for local people' GQ 'Splicing then with now, Jeremy Dyson's original novel probes the perils of an overactive imagination' OBSERVER 'Written with genuine verve and insight, this is a surprisingly moving exploration of how ordinary lives come to be controlled and defined by fear' DAILY MAIL 'Themes of unrequited love, fear, and the burden of history, but with a lightness of touch and compassion' JEWISH CHRONICLE 'Darkly additive ... Dyson has created an unputdownable story that twists and turns its way to a satisfying ending' SUNDAY BUSINESS POST

METRO
'Dyson’s beautifully spun tale sucks you in completely'

INDEPENDENT ON SUNDAY
'Dyson's one of those rare authors who can write from the heart
while still creating something deceptively clever and complex'

Customer Reviews

Dysonfantastic!
Jeremys previous book - Never trust a rabbit must now be seen as a writer finding a style, it was a little too mixed! What happens now is a book by a writer who has found his style and is comfortable with it!

Jeremy draws on his experience filming the League of Gentlemen and other shows and mixes it with observations from a certain train journey to Romania. I am guessing this is the train journey Jeremy and Mark made to find the Church in the Ciccerones. The book works well, it draws you in and keeps you hooked to the end, surely everything a book should do! At the end there is a certain completeness that I found I rather liked...you will too!

Hypnotic and haunting...a brilliant debut novel
Having read Jeremy Dyson's 'What Happens Now' within the space of a few days it's hard to believe that it's his debut novel.

Each chapter is enthralling, every paragraph meaningful...not a wasted line or a word out of place.

Dyson is blessed with the ability to say so much with just a few lines. He has a writing style that is so crisp, concise and unforced that it seems almost effortless...characters and ideas flow off the pages in such a natural way.

Contained within this unaffected style are complex themes; how the past and present collide, the power of imagination - and how these create and shape the fear, regret and self destructiveness of the novel's two main characters - Alistair Black and Alice Zealand.

Alistair Black is the central character and is written with such sympathy, depth of feeling and understanding that the reader is on his side from the opening paragraphs of the novel to the devastating ending.

The story criss-crosses several decades and is brilliantly sustained, enabling you to see the characters at different stages of their lives. Its this narrative arc which allows the book's thematical and emotional complexity to develop with such originality and distinctive depth...its absolutely mesmerising.

There are so many scenes and moments in this novel which I know will stay in my memory long after reading them. Dyson subtly creates such atmosphere and suspense in the incidents befalling his characters. The understated way in which the threatening
menace of a key scene in the novel - a terrible, overwhelming incident that happens one night to Alistair and Alice - is built up makes its appalling conclusion even more shocking. Its a perfect example of a writer at the height of his powers.

Jeremy Dyson's debut novel is simply stunning...a totally unforgettable experience for the reader. If you only read one book this year make it this one...

(If 'What Happens Now' whets your appetite for more Dyson then buy 'Never Trust A Rabbit', a brilliant collection of his short stories)

buy this book
Unlike one of the reviewers, I was unable to read this wonderful book in one sitting - but not for want of trying! There is so much here - it is skilfully and beautifully written and a finely crafted portrait of the insecurities of growing up.There are tender moments and there are truly startling ones. There are scenes which made me laugh out loud and scenes which made me cry, scenes which made me hanker for those awkward times as a teenager and some which filled me with terror.This book is emphatically not just for League of Gentleman fans -don't let the list of the other books bought by other readers put you off.