Imagine David Nicholls's One Day as retold by Woody Allen and you'll get a pretty good idea of what to expect with Gabriel Roth's The Unknowns. It's not easy to pursue the most alluring woman in North America when you're a misfiring circuit of over-analytical self-doubt and she has a way with a killer line and a perfectly raised eyebrow. Even, that is, when you've survived your teen years as an outcast in the school computer room to become a dot com millionaire. But as Eric Muller refines his email technique, his date patter, and his ability to shut up after sex, he finds there's more to Maya Marcom than meets the eye. Will our hero be driven to uncover the whole truth about his lover -- or will they continue in bliss and wonder? Welcome to the hilarious, neurotic, and peculiarly perceptive world of The Unknowns.
'he is a class act, witty and insightful, poking fun at the sort of men who can become dotcom millionaires without understanding the first thing about human beings.'
Mail on Sunday'Gabriel Roth fearlessly tackles some weighty issues - including false memory syndrome and the Iraq war - in his debut. The result is a novel of two [...] halves: the first a geek-com of frequently Woody Allen-esque brilliance, the second something altogether darker and more searching. [...] Roth is a genuinely exciting talent.'
Daily Mail[a] sparky, neurotic debut novel [...] Roth has a sharp awareness of trends and this comes out, hilariously, in Eric's dry commentary. The earnestness of youth is wittily depicted [...] Eric could be a creep but Roth has imbued him with such a hefty amount of humorous self-doubt that you can't help but root for him. [...]
The Unknowns is a confident novel that manages to be both funny and sad. Buy it (
Daily Telegraph)
'invigoratingly contemporary: ironic, informal, self-deprecating and energetic. [...] Roth is dexterous enough to handle the intermingling of comedy and tragedy [...] Roth is certainly an exciting new writer, and
The Unknowns contains ample material for a fine debut - perhaps even enough for two.'
Literary Review'Roth's remarkably funny, tender book is much more than one code-writing kid's success story. [...] Roth writes in a gently self-mocking, utterly disarming style that gives
The Unknowns an unusal type of tension.'
New York Times‘A wise and mature novel, a cool and contemporary one. It announces the arrival of a bright new talent.’
Andrew O’Hagan, Booker-shortlisted author of Our Fathers
‘The Unknowns is so staggeringly funny and smart that its depths and sorrows, when they came, took my breath away.’
Megan Abbott, author of The End of Everything and Dare Me
‘The Unknowns is wonderful, a wry, ironic novel about the perils of contemporary romance, where you can collect intimate details about people you’ve never met, but still not know the truth of somebody you want to love.’
Scott Turow, best-selling author of Presumed Innocent
‘Fast, funny, full of snappy dialogue, and never losing its poise. Gabriel Roth is a find.’ Sebastian Faulks, best-selling author of
Birdsong
