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The Birthday Party
The Birthday Party
Jan 17, 2026 10:17 AM

Author:Panos Karnezis

The Birthday Party

It is the summer of 1975. As dawn breaks on a small private island off the Mediterranean coast, Marco Timoleon, an aging tycoon, wakes up to see the final preparations for his troubled daughter's twenty-fifth birthday party. Having found out that she is pregnant by a man he doesn't approve of, he secretly intends to persuade her to terminate the pregnancy: the family doctor stands by to perform the operation on the spot. But as the day unfolds, his plan is put to the test and comes to an unexpected conclusion.

Reviews

Both a serious meditation on masculinity and commercial power...and a rollicking beach-read...fans of Karnezis will not be disappointed. Marco is a huge and splendidly flawed hero for a five-star novel

—— The Times

Such careful and subtle patterning confirms Karnezis as a novelist of unusual gifts

—— Financial Times

Karnezis's wise fable gestures towards a dawning era, in which vacuous yet powerful celebrity finds its ultimate apotheosis

—— Guardian

In prose as clear as the Mediterranean Sea...this is a richly detailed portrait of a man who could so easily have been sketched as a cartoon villain. It's a story about the power of stories themselves, and the countless ways we can all rewrite our pasts and twist our futures

—— Daily Mail

The reader grows to love his detestable characters and this, along with the way he takes the mundane and cranks it up into madness, is the secret of Karnezis' appeal

—— Independent on Sunday

As clever plotting and dramatic irony build a page-turning momentum, Timoleon engages sympathy even in the midst of his follies

—— Guardian

The reader is invited to strap themselves in and enjoy the ride. And what a scenic ride it is

—— Glasgow Herald

This book is an intriguing, mysterious story of loneliness, heartbreak, and how you can learn from others’ mistakes.

—— bethanyelarson.com

The Tragedy Paper has the earmarks of what will one day be a true literary classic . . . LaBan brings to life a rich cast of characters, each struggling with their own definitions of a 'tragedy' and the trials of adolescence and growing up.

—— novelnovice.com

Escape with this mystery that will keep you searching for the answer to: what really happened? . . . This page-turner is told from Tim and Duncan's perspectives as Duncan finds the key to writing the biggest, most scandalous Tragedy Paper of all Irving School history. Trust us when we say a school assignment has never been this intense!

—— Seventeen.com

The story is perfect . . . the writing is simply outstanding . . . this was an absolutely gorgeous story to read.

—— Excellentreads.blogspot

The book is magnificent, understated, full of gentle mind grenades

—— Cliff Jones

Funny and rich and dirty and taut and original. I wanted it to be my biography, but there was way more warmth and invention in it than you could fit in a lifetime

—— David Whitehouse

Funny, sad, bewildering and painfully honest, it’s a must-read for all fans of Joe Dunthorne’s Submarine

—— Emerald Street

Funny and true

—— List

What a beautifully written first novel. Joe Stretch has a way with words that is intensely captivating… Superb on adolescence, the Nineties, and more

—— William Leith , Evening Standard

A consistently amusing hymn to unfulfilled potential which grows more involving and poignant as it goes on

—— Alastair Mabbott , Herald

Jim is such a likeable character, unflinchingly recounting in all his worst failures and humiliations

—— Brandon Robshaw , Independent on Sunday

A funny, wryly observed coming-of-age novel, it will strike a chord with anyone who grew up during the Noughties. It’s full of quirky period details and Jim is an engaging narrator

—— Mail on Sunday
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