Winner of the UK Writers' Guild Award for Best Fiction Book 2011.
Winner of the Goldberg Prize 2012.
Shortlisted for the Guardian First Book Award 2010.
Winner of the Goldberg Prize 2012.
Shortlisted for the Guardian First Book Award 2010.
Shortlisted for the Desmond Elliott Prize 2011.
Some reviews of Boxer, Beetle:
UK
"Astonishingly assured... confident, droll... well observed... funny, touching... real flair and invention... Many first novels are judged promising. Boxer, Beetle arrives fully formed: original, exhilarating and hugely enjoyable." - Peter Parker, Sunday Times
"Wildly subversive" - Godfrey Smith, Sunday Times
"Gripping and clever... taut, thematically rich and extremely well written... It's clear from this compelling debut that Beauman can perform the complicated paradoxical trick required of the best 21st-century realist novelists: to take an old and predictable structure and allow it to produce new and unpredictable connections." - Scarlett Thomas, The Guardian
"Startlingly original and written with compelling energy." – Edward Stourton, chair of the Desmond Elliott Prize judges
"Astonishingly assured... confident, droll... well observed... funny, touching... real flair and invention... Many first novels are judged promising. Boxer, Beetle arrives fully formed: original, exhilarating and hugely enjoyable." - Peter Parker, Sunday Times
"Wildly subversive" - Godfrey Smith, Sunday Times
"Gripping and clever... taut, thematically rich and extremely well written... It's clear from this compelling debut that Beauman can perform the complicated paradoxical trick required of the best 21st-century realist novelists: to take an old and predictable structure and allow it to produce new and unpredictable connections." - Scarlett Thomas, The Guardian
"Dazzling." - Claire Armitstead, The Guardian"
Prodigiously clever and energetically entertaining." - Adam Foulds, The Guardian
Prodigiously clever and energetically entertaining." - Adam Foulds, The Guardian
"Exuberantly clever and ingenious... energetic... witty." - Isobel Montgomery, The Guardian
"Staggeringly energetic intellectual slapstick... crammed with strange, funny and interesting things." - Sam Leith, The Guardian
"Staggeringly energetic intellectual slapstick... crammed with strange, funny and interesting things." - Sam Leith, The Guardian
"Riotous." - Justine Jordan, The Guardian
"Exuberant... wild originality... terrific." - The Times
"Dazzling... impressive... exhilarating... a fine debut: clever, inventive, intelligently structured... an enjoyable, high-octane read." - Rob Sharp, Independent on Sunday
"Frighteningly assured." - Katy Guest, Independent on Sunday
"Exuberant... wild originality... terrific." - The Times
"Dazzling... impressive... exhilarating... a fine debut: clever, inventive, intelligently structured... an enjoyable, high-octane read." - Rob Sharp, Independent on Sunday
"Frighteningly assured." - Katy Guest, Independent on Sunday
"Probably the most politically incorrect novel of the decade - as well as the funniest... monstrous misfits with ugly motives are beautifully rendered in a novel where Beauman’s scrupulous research is deftly threaded through serious themes in a laugh-out-loud-on-the-train history lesson." - Sunday Telegraph"
A debut with the whiff of a cult classic... ferociously imaginative... his killer irony evokes early Evelyn Waugh... this is humour that goes beyond black, careening off into regions of darkness to deliver the funniest new book I've read in a year or two." - Peter Carty, The Independent
"Uproarious." - Boyd Tonkin, The Independent
"A rambunctious, deftly plotted delight of a debut." - The Observer
"Very funny... ambitious and energetic." - The Daily Telegraph
"An assured debut... Beauman writes with wit and verve." - Carl Wilkinson, The Financial Times
A debut with the whiff of a cult classic... ferociously imaginative... his killer irony evokes early Evelyn Waugh... this is humour that goes beyond black, careening off into regions of darkness to deliver the funniest new book I've read in a year or two." - Peter Carty, The Independent
"Uproarious." - Boyd Tonkin, The Independent
"A rambunctious, deftly plotted delight of a debut." - The Observer
"Very funny... ambitious and energetic." - The Daily Telegraph
"An assured debut... Beauman writes with wit and verve." - Carl Wilkinson, The Financial Times
"Clever... an enjoyable confection: witty, ludicrous and entertaining." – James Urquhart, The Financial Times
"A real knockout... dazzling... one of the best novels of the year... ingeniously constructed and utterly readable." - Leo Robson, The Daily Express
"Intelligent... impressive... this would be a brilliant debut from anyone, regardless of their age. As it is, I can only gape in admiration at a new writing force and wonder what he's going to produce next." - The Daily Mail
"Dazzling... compellingly tragic... darkly funny... an utterly unique work that marks the London-based author out as an exciting new voice in fiction." - The List (Edinburgh)
"Witty, erudite... articulate and original... often gobsmackingly smutty." - Time Out
"Fantastically precocious... a witty, fascinating, romping read." - Word
"Dizzying." - The Big Issue
"Very funny." – Times Literary Supplement
"Curiously entertaining... Ned Beauman's debut novel Boxer, Beetle has got everyone talking." - Evening Standard
"Confident and accomplished... Beauman writes like a dream." - Camden New Journal
"A real knockout... dazzling... one of the best novels of the year... ingeniously constructed and utterly readable." - Leo Robson, The Daily Express
"Intelligent... impressive... this would be a brilliant debut from anyone, regardless of their age. As it is, I can only gape in admiration at a new writing force and wonder what he's going to produce next." - The Daily Mail
"Dazzling... compellingly tragic... darkly funny... an utterly unique work that marks the London-based author out as an exciting new voice in fiction." - The List (Edinburgh)
"Witty, erudite... articulate and original... often gobsmackingly smutty." - Time Out
"Fantastically precocious... a witty, fascinating, romping read." - Word
"Dizzying." - The Big Issue
"Very funny." – Times Literary Supplement
"Curiously entertaining... Ned Beauman's debut novel Boxer, Beetle has got everyone talking." - Evening Standard
"Confident and accomplished... Beauman writes like a dream." - Camden New Journal
"Startlingly original and written with compelling energy." – Edward Stourton, chair of the Desmond Elliott Prize judges
Named as one of the ten most promising UK debuts by The Culture Show 2011.
Australia
"Boxer, Beetle is driven by a rapacious and addictive hilarity... brilliant... Beauman's writing is as elegant and sharp as the narrative is wild." - The Age (Melbourne)
US
"A premise as wonderfully outlandish as any we’ve seen in a long while... oddball and rambunctious... funny, raw and stylish." – The New York Times
Pick of the week, starred review. "An ebullient and thrilling narrative... Irreverent, profane and very funny. Best of all, he writes prose that... has the power to startle, no small feat in a debut." - Publisher's Weekly
Starred review. "A bizarre and funny mystery that is filled with eccentric scholarship." - Booklist
"The story wonderfully mocks eugenics and fascism, while the writing bursts with imaginative metaphors... Quirky, comical, brilliant." - Kirkus Reviews
"A romp across the decades, with quirky characters and a complex, darkly humorous story." - Library Journal
"Amusing and rampageous." – NPR
1 comment:
I just finished reading Boxer Beetle - and thought I'd tell you how brilliant, erudite and gripping I thought it was. I bought it because it was cheaper (and perhaps shorter)than the Teleportation Accident - of which I had read some excellent reviews - and raced through it in a couple of days. TTA is next on my list, and I can't wait to read it.
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