
Staff Pick
Service
by John Tottenham
AUCK IN STOCK
WGTN IN STOCK
Pages:
336
Published:
4 Nov 2025
Format
Paperback
Publisher
Profile Books Limited
Imprint
Tuskar Rock Press
ISBN:
9781805227021
'John Tottenham writes with a rare comic intensity' COLM TÓIBÍN'My favourite nihilistic romantic' RACHEL KUSHNER'A brutally honest, insightful, intelligent and absolutely hilarious novel' MICHAEL IMPERIOLIWhat's this book about? Is there a restroom? Do you have gluten-free bagels? Do you work here? Do you have a restroom? Do I buy books or rent books or what? Still a bookseller in his late forties, Sean knows that the worst thing about a bookshop is the customers. Then there's the gift-wrapping, the invoicing, the Yelp reviews. The overwhelming sense of self-loathing after another day of not writing a novel yourself. While Sean's book remains unfinished, his city has changed around him. As have friends and acquaintances, at least the ones who keep in touch. The service industry is different, too. But what, or whom, is he serving anyway? Biting, hilarious and self-aware, John Tottenham's debut novel is a razor-sharp dissection of gentrification, friendship, jealousy and the role of literature in a digital age.
$38.00
It's like Black Books, except if Bernard was a successful bookshop in LA and used words like 'comeliness' and 'effortfully' and had the wit of a poet with a sense of humour. Tottenham takes on the modern scourges of gentrification, male vanity, jealousy, and the worth of literature in the digital age with curmudgeonous humour and mean-spiritedness. Great for a much-needed laugh!



