Dazed & Aroused [Paperback]

'Less Than Zero for the Off-Beat Generation.'--3:AM Magazine

'A novelist with the ability to cut through the hype and reveal the dark heart of everyday life.'--Independent

'A stunning debut novel.'--Andrew Gallix, FLUX

For six hectic months, season to season in the High Fashion calendar, twenty-something male model Alex hurtles between London, Paris and Milan, absorbed in the ruthless world of the catwalk. His long-term girlfriend, Nathalie, is desperate to rekindle their love; his oldest friend, Hugo, though regarding Alex's so-called career as frivolous, continues to urge fidelity; while his father, reduced to a voice on an answer machine, nevertheless persists in seeking his estranged son's approval. As his stock as a model soars, Alex is increasingly drawn into a world of predatory sex, drug-induced infatuation and a growing bewilderment with the alluring, seductive shallowness of all he sees around him. The centre cannot hold...

Gavin James Bower's first novel is an astonishing debut. Written in a terse, vivid prose his sharp, ironic tone eviscerates the superficiality of a glittering world where nothing is what it seems and chaotic despair is never far away.

Gavin James Bower graduated from the University of Sheffield in 2004 and, while interning that summer at Dazed & Confused, was asked to model for an upcoming issue. Joining agencies in London, Paris and Milan, he worked for John Galliano and Hermes. His journalism has appeared in FLUX and the Sunday Telegraph. He lives in London.

Follow him on twitter @gavinjamesbower

Most of the models are getting ready now and the makeshift changing area is open and as well as what looks like a stylist per outfit I notice a group of young girls just standing around and watching us undress and as I strip naked to put on my outfit starting with a pair of Galliano briefs which is a full outfit for some boys I wink at one girl who's looking me up and down and then I ask a stylist if she could get me some more pomegranate juice.