 First edition (UK) | |
| Author | Magnus Mills |
|---|---|
| Language | English |
| Genre | tragi-comedy |
| Publisher | Flamingo (UK) Arcade (US) |
Publication date | 1999 |
| Publication place | United Kingdom |
| Media type | Print & ebook |
| Pages | 224 |
| ISBN | 0-00-225906-0 |
All Quiet on the Orient Express is the second novel by Booker shortlisted author Magnus Mills, published in 1999. As with his first novel it is a tragicomedy with an unnamed narrator dealing with apparently simple but increasingly sinister situations.
The narrator is spending a few weeks camping in the Lake District before setting out on a motorcycle trip to India. He agrees to help the campsite owner, Tommy Parker, by performing a simple chore, painting a gate. One thing inexorably leads to another, and he finds himself drawn into a succession of disparate tasks, each more complex and time-consuming, and from which there appears to be no escape.
All Quiet on the Orient Express was generally well-received among British press. [1] [2] [3] The Complete Review 's assessment was that the story is "not entirely credible, but enjoyable and creepy", and noted that aggregated reviews from other publishers "enjoyed it, and some are very enthusiastic". [4]
Carey Harrison in the San Francisco Chronicle commented: "It's not out of idle amusement that the sweetly fiendish author has named his book All Quiet on the Orient Express. This marriage of famous titles hides from view (yet points to) its dark, telling twin: Murder on the Western Front . Not since Kafka has an author lured his audience so innocently, so beguilingly, into hell." [5]
Nanja Labi in Time wrote: "In this creepy, deadpan novel by a nominee for Britain's Booker Prize, nothing much happens—except that one man slowly, painlessly, surrenders his life." [6]
Brian Evenson compared it favourably with Mills's first novel: "The characters are similar, the style and tone are quite similar, and both make wry but dark commentary on the dilemma of working men. Yet one must acknowledge that the range of All Quiet on the Orient Express is larger; Mills develops the absurdity of this situation with more subtlety and precision." [7]
According to The New York Times in 2012, the novel was being adapted into a film by Idiotlamp Productions, directed by Jim Field Smith. [8] [9] Idiotlamp's website no longer has any information about this project, as of 2017 [update] . [10]
The Idiot is a novel by the 19th-century Russian author Fyodor Dostoevsky. It was first published serially in the journal The Russian Messenger in 1868–69.
Narration is the use of a written or spoken commentary to convey a story to an audience. Narration is conveyed by a narrator: a specific person, or unspecified literary voice, developed by the creator of the story to deliver information to the audience, particularly about the plot: the series of events. Narration is a required element of all written stories, presenting the story in its entirety. It is optional in most other storytelling formats, such as films, plays, television shows and video games, in which the story can be conveyed through other means, like dialogue between characters or visual action.
Magnus Mills is an English fiction writer and bus driver. He is best known for his first novel, The Restraint of Beasts, which was shortlisted for the Booker Prize and praised by Thomas Pynchon.
True History of the Kelly Gang is a novel by Australian writer Peter Carey, based loosely on the history of the Kelly Gang. It was first published in Brisbane by the University of Queensland Press in 2000. It won the 2001 Booker Prize and the Commonwealth Writers Prize in the same year. Despite its title, the book is fiction and a variation on the Ned Kelly story.
Brian Evenson is an American academic and writer of both literary fiction and popular fiction, some of the latter being published under B. K. Evenson. His fiction is often described as literary minimalism, but also draws inspiration from horror, weird fiction, detective fiction, science fiction and continental philosophy. Evenson makes frequent use of dark humor and often features characters struggling with the limits and consequences of knowledge. He has also written non-fiction, and translated several books by French-language writers into English.
Amit Chaudhuri is a novelist, poet, essayist, literary critic, editor, singer, and music composer from India.
Youth (2002) is a semi-fictionalised autobiographical novel by J. M. Coetzee, recounting his struggles in 1960s London after fleeing the political unrest of Cape Town.
Being Dead is a novel by the English writer Jim Crace, published in 1999.
Dame Hilary Mary Mantel was a British writer whose work includes historical fiction, personal memoirs and short stories. Her first published novel, Every Day Is Mother's Day, was released in 1985. She went on to write 12 novels, two collections of short stories, a personal memoir, and numerous articles and opinion pieces.
Music and Silence is a historical novel written by English author Rose Tremain. It is set in and around the court of Christian IV of Denmark in the years 1629 and 1630.
Master Georgie is a 1998 historical novel by English novelist Beryl Bainbridge. It deals with the British experience of the Crimean War through the adventures of the eponymous central character George Hardy, who volunteers to work on the battlefields.
Hotel World is a 2001 novel written by Ali Smith, published by Hamish Hamilton. It won both the Scottish Arts Council Book Award (2001) and the Encore Award (2002).
Three to See the King, the third novel by Booker Prize-shortlisted author Magnus Mills, published in 2001, is part parable and part speculative fiction. Written after the success of his first book, The Restraint of Beasts, brought him into the media limelight, Three to See the King started out in part as a "project" to prove to himself that he could be a full-time writer. The book was so successful that reviews appeared in The Guardian, The Spectator and The Independent, and it has been translated into both German as Zum König! (2004) and French as 3 pour voir le Roi (2005).
Screwtop Thompson, Booker Prize-shortlisted author Magnus Mills' third collection of short stories, brings together ten short tales that "trundle gently between the ordinary, absurd and the outright surreal." Mills writes short stories described as "solid, crafted from deceptively simple sentences and concerning simple characters trying to achieve simple goals, which makes their sudden flights of fancy all the more unexpected."
A Cruel Bird Came to the Nest and Looked In is a novel by English author Magnus Mills published in 2011 by Bloomsbury.
"Bloodstone" is a song by Australian singer Guy Sebastian. It was released on 20 October 2017 as the second single from Sebastian's eighth studio album, Conscious.
The Forensic Records Society is a novel by English author Magnus Mills published in 2017 by Bloomsbury.
The Field of the Cloth of Gold is a novel by English author Magnus Mills, published in 2015 by Bloomsbury it was shortlisted for the Goldsmiths Prize that year.
Bella Bathurst is an English writer, photojournalist, and furniture maker. Her novel The Lighthouse Stevensons won the 2000 Somerset Maugham Award.
John Major: The Autobiography is a memoir by former British Prime Minister and Leader of the Conservative Party John Major, published by HarperCollins, on 11 October 1999. It covers Major's life up until that point, including his decade on the front bench under Margaret Thatcher and his time in Number 10.