Whatever Happened to Harold Absalon? by Simon Okotie

Whatever Happened to Harold Absalon? by Simon Okotie

Marguerite, a down-at-heel detective, investigates, in minute and comically digressive detail, the disappearance of Harold Absalon, the Mayors transport advisor. He follows, and then is followed by, Harolds wife Isobel and their young child around an unnamed modern city resembling London.

.. charming and fresh; indeed, the only recent comparable fiction would be Will Self’s Booker-shortlisted Umbrella, which also features a prolonged, digressive sequence set on a London bus. Simon Okotie’s book will receive less attention, but it is equally audacious, and in its own, low-key way, just as compelling.

-- David Evans * Financial Times *

Okotie’s protagonist, Marguerite, is an investigator (of some kind) charged (by someone) with following the wife of Harold Absalon after the disappearance (perhaps) of her husband. Hardly a nail-biting procedural, the action such as it is goes no further than up and down in an elevator and onto a bus—a timespan of a few minutes, at most. It’s a marvel of compression, not in the manner of Jean Echenoz and others who strip the detective novel down to its bones, but by taking a few minor, even meaningless moments of a larger investigation and exploding them to the point of rewarding absurdity.

* Necessary Fiction *

Simon Okotie is a fiction writer and essayist. He is the author of Whatever Happened to Harold Absalon?, In the Absence of Absalon and After Absalon, an acclaimed trilogy of novels published by Salt. In the Absence of Absalon was longlisted for the 2017 Republic of Consciousness Prize. His work has appeared in FT Weekend and Gorse, and at 3:AM Magazine and The White Review. Two Degrees of Freedom, a short story, is published by Nightjar Press.

SKU	Unavailable
ISBN 13	9781907773341
ISBN 10	1907773347
Title	Whatever Happened to Harold Absalon?
Author	Simon Okotie
Series	Absalon Trilogy
Condition	Unavailable
Binding Type	Paperback
Publisher	Salt Publishing
Year published	2012-10-15
Number of pages	208
Cover note	Book picture is for illustrative purposes only, actual binding, cover or edition may vary.