Homage to a Firing Squad by Tariq Goddard

Homage to a Firing Squad by Tariq Goddard

Four young men are in a car on their way to assassinate the politician Don Rojo. Unfortunately, not one of them has assassinated anyone before, three of them are in love with the Don's daughter, and, unbeknownst to them the politician is lying awake in his Hacienda, contemplating suicide. Goddard describes the events of one bizarre night in prose that is taut, evocative and often darkly funny. As the rain pours down on the Tibidabo road, the would-be-murderers encounter lusty barmaids, crises of conscience, road blocks and - with fatal results - the man who ordered Rojo's assassination, and all the while the Spanish civil war boils around them. Eventually they converge on the hacienda (along with a couple of real assassins, a failed Don Juan and two over-sexed daughters) in a surreal and bullet-ridden climax that puts 'Lock Stock and Two Smoking Barrels' to shame.

A pacy, poised and undeniably exciting debut.. a taut, bleakly humorous (and well written) adventure - Boyd Tonkin, Independent

Goddard's account of a picaresque mission in the final days of the Spanish Civil War is replete with this droll and deeply sympathetic view of the impulses driving human conflict; its's a cerebral, powerful and accomplished debut - The Face

A clever mix of humour and sadness and life and death ... a surreal book that juggles humour with horror as it journeys deep into the night. - John King

An impressive debut ... each character is drawn with humour and subtlety ...a fine balance between comedy and tragedy, pathos and slapstick - Times

Funny and inventive, a superbly written and immensely enjoyable read from a supremely confident authorial voice. A book to be read at one sitting. - Whitbread judging panel

A polished debut novel ... While bullets whistle through the air, knives flash silver in the moonlight and the body count creeps ever upwards, the real action takes place in the minds of the protagonists. There the drama of sibling rivalries, unrequited love and marital feuds is played out to surreal and often comic effect. - Daily Mail

Avoiding overly serious history, frank sex scenes rub shoulders with bloody and farcical violence to form a surreal, fable-like backdrop to the unfolding drama ... Readable and unpredictable, this

Tariq Goddard was born in London in 1975 and studied philosophy at Kings College London and the University of Warwick. He was expelled from public school at the age of thirteen and has wanted to be a writer ever since. He is currently writing his second novel and researching a PhD in Continental Philosophy.

SKU	Unavailable
ISBN 13	9780340821466
ISBN 10	0340821469
Title	Homage to a Firing Squad
Author	Tariq Goddard
Condition	Unavailable
Binding Type	Hardback
Publisher	Hodder & Stoughton
Year published	2002-04-18
Number of pages	256
Prizes	Short-listed for Whitbread Book Awards: First Novel Category 2002, Short-listed for Whitbread Prize (First Novel) 2002
Cover note	Book picture is for illustrative purposes only, actual binding, cover or edition may vary.
Note	Unavailable