The Room
1st Edition
Published on 15. January 2015
176 pages
978-1-4481-9125-3 (ISBN)
Description
The Authority looks favourably upon meticulousness, efficiency and ambition. Bjorn has all of this in spades, but it's only in the Room that he can really shine. Unfortunately, his colleagues see things differently. In fact, they don't even see the Room at all.
The Room is a short, sharp and fiendish fable in the tradition of Franz Kafka, Samuel Beckett and Charlie Kauffman. If you have ever toiled in an office, felt like the world was against you or questioned the nature of reality then this is the novel for you.
The Room is a short, sharp and fiendish fable in the tradition of Franz Kafka, Samuel Beckett and Charlie Kauffman. If you have ever toiled in an office, felt like the world was against you or questioned the nature of reality then this is the novel for you.
Reviews / Votes
A gripping, tense, demonic fable in which the unease is precision-tooled and the turns of the screw wholly unexpected. * Neel Mukherjee * The Room is the most effective chapbook on workplace comportment since Glengarry Glen Ross. Hats off! * Nick Offerman, Ron Swanson in Parks and Recreation * Thoroughly enjoyable... If you read only one novel by a famous Swedish actor translated into English this year, make it The Room -- Ian Sansom * Guardian * Kafka meets The Office in this hilarious and chilling Swedish fable of workplace politics -- Kate Saunders * The Times * A brief but brilliant tale -- Stephanie Boland * Financial Times * surreal, funny and unsettling -- Arifa Akbar * The Independent * The novel works both as a glorious satire of the modern workplace and as a psychological drama played through the eyes of Bjorn, a pedantic and thoroughly unreliable narrator. As entertaining as it is disturbing to be in his mind, I was both intrigued and entertained. -- Fanny Blake * Daily Mail * This is a very funny book about a magical room, but it is also a familiar, humane story about alienation and intolerance, set during a bleak Swedish winter -- Jonathan McAloon * The Times Literary Supplement * brilliantly deadpan...often very funny -- Eileen Battersby * Irish Times * The Room deftly creates an intense mood that remains unbroken for the short, enjoyable period this novella takes to read -- Jane Graham * Big Issue *More details
Language
English
Place of publication
London
United Kingdom
Publishing group
Vintage Publishing
Illustrations
-
File size
0,75 MB
ISBN-13
978-1-4481-9125-3 (9781448191253)
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Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
Additional editions
Persons
Jonas Karlsson, one of Sweden's most prominent actors, has performed on Sweden's premier stage and in acclaimed feature films and TV series. Karlsson's playwriting debut, Nocturnal Walk, received rave reviews; spurred by the joy of writing for the stage, Karlsson began writing fiction. His first novel in the UK, The Room, was published last year. Neil Smith has translated many acclaimed Norwegian and Swedish novels, including books by Fredrik Backman and Leif G. W. Persson's The Dying Detective, winner of the CWA International Dagger 2017. He lives in Norfolk.
