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The Adventures of Augie March
The Adventures of Augie March
Nov 13, 2025 12:05 PM

Author:Saul Bellow,Christopher Hitchens

The Adventures of Augie March

'The Adventures of Augie March is the Great American Novel. Search no further' Martin Amis

A penniless and parentless Chicago boy growing up in the Great Depression, Augie March drifts through life latching on to a wild succession of occupations, including butler, thief, dog-washer, sailor and salesman. He is a 'born recruit', easily influenced by others who try to mould his destiny. Not until he tangles with the glamorous Thea, a huntress with a trained eagle, can he attempt to break free. A modern day everyman on an odyssey in search of reality and identity, Augie March is the star of star performer in a richly observed human variety show, a modern-day Columbus in search of reality and fulfilment.

The Adventures of Augie March includes an introduction by Christopher Hitchens in Penguin Modern Classics.

'Funny, poignant, crowded with carnivalesque types and yet narrated by a voice that is lonely and simple, it is Bellow's fat comic masterpiece' Observer

Reviews

It's rare that a first novel is so magical, so dark, so well-researched, so smart or so compelling. Queen of Kings is a powerful work of the imagination, stalking the murky, dangerous territory between Anne Rice's Queen of the Damned and Robert Graves' I, Claudius and should appeal to those who like their historical fiction and those who crave dark magics and sharp teeth in the night. I can't wait to read what Ms Headley writes next

—— NEIL GAIMAN

A page-turner: an epic historical thriller that combines a great love story with a slew of witches, gods, ghosts and classical monsters. Add the Roman army and Cleopatra and it is obvious: this is the book readers have been waiting for

—— DANIELLE TRUSSONI, bestselling author of "Angelology"

Serpents, sorcerers, sex! Egypt, Rome, Greece! A brilliantly energetic smorgasbord. Gird your loins, dear readers, because Queen of Kings is on the loose! Hug your loved ones, tuck your head firmly between your knees, and hope that you're praying to the correct god. Because if you're not? Well, read this book to discover your fate...

—— GARTH STEIN. bestelling author of "The Art of Racing in the Rain"

Like a hipper and darker 21st century Anne Rice. If you like your history mixed with fiction, and full of sex and magic and violence - and let's face it, that's how we all prefer it - then you're in for a hell of a ride

—— ED BRUBAKER, writer of "The Death of Captain America"

Mixes dark fantasy and historical fiction with large dollops of American Gods-style mythological bricolage... It's to Headley's credit that she makes this audaciously naff premise not only work, but work well... This is a shamelessly fun pop-historical blockbuster

—— SFX Magazine

I love this book: the boys running wild on the long sea voyage, the slow revelation of the adult world they don't fully understand, the loss of the past and the beginning of the future, and even a sort of thriller in there! And the beauty of the sentences. Perfection

—— Salman Rushdie

Wondrous

—— Financial Times

Part memoir, complete masterpiece... Written with tenderness, wisdom and sharp emotional recall, this is an exuberant elegy to innocence

—— Maggie Fergusson , Intelligent Life

Grave and playful at the same time, beautifully written and moving

—— The Times

It's impossible to explain through any discussion of plot and character the hypnotic brilliance of The Cat's Table. The joy of boyhood and the darkness at its edges are conveyed in sense of extraordinary imagination... It is entirely...well, Ondaatje-esque

—— Kamila Shamsie , Guardian, Books of the Year

Vividly follows the passage from Ceylon to England of an 10 year-old boy on a line full of eccentric, mysterious passengers

—— Ann Saddlemyer , Irish Times, Books of the Year

Ondaatje's prose, flawless as ever, deals with loneliness, friendship and pre-pubescent love

—— Christine Dwyer Hickey , Irish Times, Books of the Year
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