Joshua Ferris

'There's nothing like a dental chair to remind a man that he's alone in the world, subject to pain, blood, decay, and a slow attenuation back down to the elements.' Paul O'Rourke - dentist extraordinaire, reluctant New Yorker, avowed atheist, disaffected Red Sox fan, and a connoisseur of the afternoon mochaccino - is a man out of touch with modern life. While his thriving dental practice occupies his days, his insomniac nights are filled with speculation and regret, as he ponders his mistakes with his ex-girlfriend (and receptionist) Connie, questions all the rituals that give his life meaning, and alternately marvels at and rails against the optimism and ignorance of the rest of humanity. So it goes, until someone begins to impersonate Paul online. Deeply committed to an analog life, Paul watches in impotent horror as a website, a Facebook page, and a Twitter account are created in his name to promote a little-known ancient religion. And yet what began as an outrageous violation of privacy soon becomes something far more soul-frightening: the possibility that the virtual 'Paul' might be a better version of the man in the flesh. Suddenly, everything Paul believes, or doesn't, seems to be at stake...Joshua Ferris's dazzlingly inventive, brutally comic new novel cuts to the very heart of modern existence: the meaning of life, the certainty of death, and the importance of good oral hygiene.

A big, brilliant, profoundly observed novel about the mysteries of modern life by National Book Award Finalist Joshua Ferris, one of the most exciting voices of his generationPaul O''Rourke is a man made of contradictions: he loves the world, but doesn''t know how to live in it. He''s a Luddite addicted to his iPhone, a dentist with a nicotine habit, a rabid Red Sox fan devastated by their victories, and an atheist not quite willing to let go of God.Then someone begins to impersonate Paul online, and he watches in horror as a website, a Facebook page, and a Twitter account are created in his name. What begins as an outrageous violation of his privacy soon becomes something more soul-frightening: the possibility that the online "Paul" might be a better version of the real thing. As Paul''s quest to learn why his identity has been stolen deepens, he is forced to confront his troubled past and his uncertain future in a life disturbingly split between the real and the virtual.At once laugh-out-loud funny about the absurdities of the modern world, and indelibly profound about the eternal questions of the meaning of life, love and truth, TO RISE AGAIN AT A DECENT HOUR is a deeply moving and constantly surprising tour de force.

'He reflected in future retrospect on the evening and foretold every gesture, every word. "I can't do it," he said. "I can predict everything that will happen from the moment they arrive to the little kiss on the cheek goodbye and I just can't goddamn do it."'The Dinner Party immerses us in the comic and strange realities of modern life, as we journey through the lives of the unlovable, the unloved, and those who love too much: Jack, who nervously tries to befriend the surly removal man by buying him a latte and a croissant; Sarah, who endlessly imagines how her evening would have been better had she only chosen a different restaurant; Joe, who spends a night alone at the office and surreptitiously starts to rearrange his colleagues' belongings.These are stories about the infinite possibilities of a person's life, from an agonizingly funny and original writer.

Then We Came to the End is your life and my life. It is how we spend our days and too many of our nights. It is about being away from friends and family, about sharing a stretch of stained tiled carpet with a group of strangers we call colleagues. It is about sitting all morning next to someone you deliberately cross the road to avoid at lunchtime.

No one knows us quite the same way as the men and women who sit beside us in department meetings and crowd the office refrigerator with their labelled yogurts. Every office is a family of sorts, and the ad agency Joshua Ferris brilliantly depicts in his debut novel is family at its strangest and best, coping with a business downturn in the time-honored way: through gossip, pranks, and increasingly frequent coffee breaks. With a demon's eye for the details that make life worth noticing, Joshua Ferris tells a true and funny story about survival in life's strangest environment--the one we pretend is normal five days a week

No one knows us quite the same way as the men and women who sit beside us in department meetings and crowd the office refrigerator with their labeled yogurts. Every office is a family of sorts, and the ad agency Joshua Ferris brilliantly depicts in his debut novel is family at its strangest and best, coping with a business downturn in the time-honored way: through gossip, pranks, and increasingly frequent coffee breaks. With a demon's eye for the details that make life worth noticing, Joshua Ferris tells a true and funny story about survival in life's strangest environment--the one we pretend is normal five days a week.

Paul O''Rourke es un hombre lleno de contradicciones: adicto a su iPhone y enemigo de las redes sociales, ateo confeso que no quiere renunciar a Dios, dentista concienzudo que sin embargo fuma, hombre que ama este mundo pero que no sabe como vivir en el. Sin embargo, su vida va a cambiar cuando descubre horrorizado e impotente que alguien lo suplanta en internet, que tiene una web de su clinica dental, y que desde Facebook y Twitter envia polemicas opiniones en su nombre sobre un misterioso pueblo antiguo y olvidado...Paul O''Rourke es un hombre lleno de contradicciones: adicto a su iPhone y enemigo de las redes sociales, ateo confeso que no quiere renunciar a Dios, dentista concienzudo que sin embargo fuma, hombre que ama este mundo pero que no sabe como vivir en el. Sin embargo, su vida va a cambiar cuando descubre horrorizado e impotente que alguien lo suplanta en internet, que tiene una web de su clinica dental, y que desde Facebook y Twitter envia polemicas opiniones en su nombre sobre un misterioso pueblo antiguo y olvidado...

Paul O' Rourke es un hombre lleno de contradicciones: adicto a su iPhone y enemigo de las redes sociales, furioso seguidor de los Red Sox desconcertado por sus victorias, ateo confeso que no quiere renunciar a Dios, dentista concienzudo que sin embargo fuma y es incapaz de superar su natural torpeza para las relaciones humanas. Es un hombre que ama este mundo pero que no sabe como vivir en el.Se pasa el dia trabajando en su prestigiosa clinica de Park Avenue y las noches lamentando los errores cometidos con su exnovia Connie, recepcionista de la consulta, y abrumado por el optimismo del resto de la humanidad. Pero su vida va a cambiar cuando descubre horrorizado e impotente que alguien le suplanta en internet, que tiene una web de su clinica dental, y que desde Facebook y Twitter envia polemicas opiniones en su nombre sobre un misterioso pueblo antiguo y olvidado. Mientras averigua por que le han robado su identidad, tendra que enfrentarse a su nebuloso pasado y a la posibilidad de que el Paul virtual pueda ser mejor que el real." Levantarse otra vez a una hora decente" es una novela brillante y muy original que derrocha una inventiva deslumbrante y un humor acido y cinico. Nos retrata ironicamente lo absurdo de una sociedad actual marcada por las redes sociales, la soledad, el problema identitar...

Tim Farnsworth is a handsome, healthy man, ageing with the grace of a matinee idol. He loves his work. He loves his family. He loves his kitchen. And then one day he stands up and walks out on all of

Charlie Barnes, sixty-eight years old, reasonable man, small-business owner is facing the abyss and it's time to reckon with how he has lived his life so far. What happened to all those great ideas that were snatched from the jaws of success? And what was with all those unsuccessful marriages? Well, who's counting the wives when Barbara, his fifth and most permanent wife, is such a rock solid pillar of society?Maybe Jake Barnes, son of Charlie and writer of his story is counting. Now that his father seems to be on the way out, Jake begins to wonder what Charlie Barnes's desperate dreams of success have really added up to.If his father's life was a series of fantasies, then how is it possible for his son to tell the truth about him? And will Jake have to confront the fact that in their ambitions, and their delusions, they might not actually be so very different?Joshua Ferris's new novel is both a profoundly tender and brutally funny portrayal of a life lost in the American dream.

From the Booker-shortlisted author of To Rise Again at a Decent Hour comes a novel about fathers, sons, thwarted dreams and confronting the reality of who we really areCharlie Barnes is a mid-century man devoted to his newspaper and his landline. But Charlie is about to get dragged into our troubled age by his storyteller son, who has a different idea of him than he has of himself. Then there are his other children, his ex-wives, present wife, business clients, friends and acquaintances, all of whom have their competing opinions of Charlie.He certainly seems simple enough: he's a striver, a romantic, and a thoroughgoing capitalist. But suddenly blindsided by the Great Recession and a dose of bad news, he might have to rethink his life from top to bottom, and on short notice. What makes a man real? What makes him good? And how does the story we tell about ourselves line up with the lives that we actually live?___________________________________'Funny, moving, and formally a work of genius, A Calling for Charlie Barnes is quite literally the book Joshua Ferris was born to write' Garth Risk Hallberg, author of City on Fire'Dazzling.Mind-blowing. About as much fun as you can have without risking arrest' Richard Russo, author of Empire Falls'Wonderful: fast and deep, urgent and brilliant . .. A hilarious, intimate, and scathing takedown of so many American vanities' Dana Spiotta, author of Stone Arabia

Paul ORourke - dentist extraordinaire, reluctant New Yorker, avowed atheist, and a connoisseur of the afternoon mochaccino - is a man out of touch with modern life. While his dental practice occupies his days, his nights are filled with darker thoughts, as he alternately marvels at and rails against the optimism of the rest of humanity.

Shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize, this big, brilliant, profoundly observed novel by National Book Award Finalist Joshua Ferris explores the absurdities of modern life and one mans search for meaning. Paul ORourke is a man made of contradictions: he loves the world, but doesnt know how to live in it. Hes a Luddite addicted to his iPhone, a dentist with a nicotine habit, a rabid Red Sox fan devastated by their victories, and an atheist not quite willing to let go of God. Then someone begins to impersonate Paul online, and he watches in horror as a website, a Facebook page, and a Twitter account are created in his name. What begins as an outrageous violation of his privacy soon becomes something more soul-frightening: the possibility that the online "Paul" might be a better version of the real thing. As Pauls quest to learn why his identity has been stolen deepens, he is forced to confront his troubled past and his uncertain future in a life disturbingly split between the real and the virtual. At once laugh-out-loud funny about the absurdities of the modern world, and indelibly profound about the eternal questions of the meaning of life, love and truth, To Rise Again at a Decent Hour is a deeply moving and constantly surprising tour de force.

A New York Times Book Review Notable Book of the Year: The first collection of short stories from the critically acclaimed, prize-winning author of To Rise Again at a Decent Hour These eleven stories by Joshua Ferris, many of which were first published in The New Yorker, are at once thrilling, strange, and comic. The modern tribulations of marriage, ambition, and the fear of missing out as the temptations flow like wine and the minutes of life tick down are explored with the characteristic wit and insight that have made Ferris one of our most critically acclaimed novelists. Each of these stories burrows deep into the often awkward and hilarious misunderstandings that pass between strangers and lovers alike, and that turn ordinary lives upside down. Ferris shows to what lengths we mortals go to coax human meaning from our very modest time on earth, an effort that skews ever-more desperately in the direction of redemption. Theres Arty Groys, the Florida retiree whose birthday celebration involves pizza, a prostitute, and a life-saving heart attack. Theres Sarah, the Brooklynite whose shape-shifting existential dilemma is set in motion by a simple spring breeze. And theres Jack, a man so warped by past experience that hes incapable of having a normal social interaction with the man he hires to help him move out of storage. The stories in The Dinner Party are about lives changed forever when the reckless gives way to possibility and the ordinary cedes ground to mystery. And each one confirms Ferriss reputation as one of the most dazzlingly talented, deeply humane writers at work today.

Winner of the Hemingway Foundation / PEN Award, this debut novel is "as funny as The Office, as sad as an abandoned stapler . . . that rare comedy that feels blisteringly urgent." (TIME)No one knows us in quite the same way as the men and women who sit beside us in department meetings and crowd the office refrigerator with their labeled yogurts. Every office is a family of sorts, and the Chicago ad agency depicted in Joshua Ferriss exuberantly acclaimed first novel is family at its best and worst, coping with a business downturn in the time-honored way: through gossip, elaborate pranks, and increasingly frequent coffee breaks.With a demons eye for the details that make life worth noticing, Joshua Ferris tells an emotionally true and funny story about survival in lifes strangest environmentthe one we pretend is normal five days a week.One of the Best Books of the YearBoston Globe * Christian Science Monitor * New York Magazine * New York Times Book Review * St. Louis Post-Dispatch * Time magazine * Salon

From National Book Award Finalist Joshua Ferris comes a murderously funny novel about a modern American family and one mans attempt to come to understand the many lives of his father. (Janet Maslin, New York Times)Someone is telling the story of the life of Charlie Barnes, and it doesn't appear to be going well. Too often divorced, discontent with life's compromises, and in a house he hates, this lifelong schemer and eternal romantic would like out of his present circumstances and into the American dream. But when the twin calamities of the Great Recession and a cancer scare come along to compound his troubles, his dreams dwindle further, and an infinite past full of forking paths quickly tapers to a black dot.Then, against all odds, something goes right for a change: Charlie is granted a second act. With help from his storyteller son, he surveys the facts of his life and finds his true calling where he least expects it in a sacrifice that redounds with selflessness and love at last becoming the man his son always knew he could be.The new book by the acclaimed author Joshua Ferris, narrated by the beloved actor Nick Offerman, is a profound and tender portrait of a man whose desperate need to be loved is his downfall, and a brutally funny account of how that love is ultimately earned.

Trop souvent divorcé, mécontent des compromis de la vie et ­habitant une maison qu’il exècre, Charlie Barnes doit bien l’admettre, depuis quelque temps, tout part à vau-l’eau.Et ­lorsque la Grande Ré

Paul O’Rourke est un dentiste hors-pair, un New-Yorkais qui entretient avec sa ville des rapports ambigus, un athée convaincu, un supporter désenchanté des Red Sox, et grand amateur de mokaccino. Et