The End of the World eBook: Andrew Biss: Amazon.co.uk: Kindle Store

Product Description

An Odd, yet Oddly Touching Tale of Life, Death, and the Space In-Between by Award-Winning Author Andrew Biss

Are you prepared for what comes next?

Accustomed to a life of cosseted seclusion at home with his parents, Valentine is suddenly faced with making his own way in the world. His new life is quickly upended, however, when he's mugged at gunpoint. Finding shelter at a mysterious inn run by the dour Mrs. Anna, he soon encounters a Bosnian woman with a hole where her stomach used to be, an American entrepreneur with a scheme to implant televisions into people's foreheads, and a Catholic priest who attempts to lure him down inside a kitchen sink. Then things start getting strange...

In this story based loosely around the state of Bardo from The Tibetan Book of the Dead - an intermediate state where the dead arrive prior to rebirth - dying is the easy part. Getting out of Bardo and returning to the land of the living is a far more perilous proposition, and unless you know what you're doing...you might never leave.

"Riotously Funny."
--Elizabeth Miller, Amazon Review

"Like Douglas Adams "Hitchhiker's" only better."
--James Jenkins, Amazon Review

"The End of the World is a brilliant, intelligent tour de 'farce' delivered well-wrapped in a cutting wit so slyly subtle that the reader will return again and again out of sheer appreciation for the dialogue of its exceptional characters."
--The M.A.D. Take, Amazon Review

"Bizarre yet familiar, heart-warming yet chilling, this book keeps you reading, makes you laugh and also makes you think about life and your effect on it."
--Valerie Pointon, Amazon Review

"I was sorry when it ended and now have to go back to the longer novel. Highly recommended."
--Mace, Amazon Review

Watch the official book trailer on Amazon's Andrew Biss Page

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Customer Reviews

11 Reviews

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

Average Customer Review

3.7 out of 5 stars (11 customer reviews)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

21 of 23 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Eccentric, surreal, and heart-warming, 24 April 2011

By

P. J. Salisbury "science fiction author" (UK) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE) (TOP 1000 REVIEWER) (REAL NAME)

This review is from: The End of the World (Kindle Edition)

This book was recommended by a friend, so I downloaded the sample to see for myself. I found I was hooked from the first amusing paragraph and it wasn't long before my mouse wandered back to the 1-click button so I could read the rest.

The book begins with a verbal exchange between a mother and her stay-at-home son. From the first few words, I found myself chortling at the curiously philosophical conversation. The son later meets Anna the landlady, in whose household he spends most of the story. The various other 'lodgers' in Anna's house keep the young man in a state of naive bewilderment with a succession of eccentric propositions and unexpected questions. The only challenge he is able to rise to is when he is accosted by a priest who emerges from a kitchen appliance, in a scene which reminded me of the prison cell visit by a priest in Albert Camus' 'L'Etranger'.

If you can imagine your literary sensibility having feet, with one foot planted in surrealism and the other in existentialism, this book will tickle your toes in a singular fashion with its extravagantly eccentric banter. The story races along at a cracking pace, with barely a pause to draw breath, and includes many wonderful lines like:
"I stood in the doorway, sensing failure but clinging to hope."

- and of a bottomless coffee pot offered as part of the extensive breakfast menu:
"But surely that defies the laws of physics."
"Not if you pay your rent on time."

The mid part of the story veers into the macabre and even horrifiying, as death insinuates itself between the pages. Although death may be peaceful, it can also be horrific. This phase passes, however, and as the story concludes, it finds resolution in a surrealist form of reincarnation. 'The End Of The World' explores how death might also be a very confusing place for the recently and unexpectedly deceased.

I consider this tale to have a strongly humane and humanitarian message. It is an absorbing, entertaining and thought-provoking story, and one I would very highly recommend to anyone who appreciates a surreal and unconventional approach to 'life, death and everything in between'.

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2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars simply odd....., 1 Nov 2011

By

sparkymarky1973 - See all my reviews

This review is from: The End of the World (Kindle Edition)

Strange little tale that never really goes anywhere and feels as though it is just being odd for odd sake! Reads a little like Will Self but not quite so good ~ the main advantage is that it won't take long to read!

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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Intriguing!, 26 Jun 2011

By

Apollo (Angus) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The End of the World (Kindle Edition)

From the opening few pages this read identifies itself as whacky and a little bizarre. Biss creates dialogue which is witty yet gives one pause for thought every now and again and, in doing so, has established a singular style that whilst borrowing, a little, from others is unique and refreshing.

Here we follow the tribulations of Valentine as he makes that most arduous journey of all - that of life to death and beyond...perhaps! Without doubt there is a Buddhist undercurrent supporting the story but that's all it does and at no time do the characters proselytize about religion. We are asked to look at ourselves in the context of religion and Biss offers us an explicit Christian pitch delivered by Monsignor Dave via the kitchen sink (I did tell you it was bizarre) to balance out the Buddhist thread which runs throughout the book.

The characters Valentine meets at the B&B allow the author to bring other agendas into the story and he does so skillfully, pricking our collective conscience about matters such as, ethnic cleansing, interfering in world affairs and our part in the state this planet is in.

I have a slight problem with the initial set up and cannot reconcile the fact that our protagonist lived such a cosseted life (he had never set foot outside his garden) prior to ending up where he did with the general tone of Bardo Thodol (The Tibetan Book of the Dead: The Great Liberation Through Hearing in the Bardo (Shambhala Pocket Classics). There is probably some point to it that my extremely limited knowledge of Tibetan Funerary Text has missed. Perhaps somebody else can enlighten me!

Overall, the book is too short and this work could have been extended easily. Due to it's shortness one feels that the points the author wishes to make are "shoehorned" in and it too readily jumps onto another agenda without fully exploring the previous. On top of that, there is much that could have been made of Valentines relationship with his parents and I think that this is a major failing of the book which downgrades it to "OK", in my opinion.

It is certainly worth the admission fee to take the journey with Valentine and I would say that this book is worth a read, for sure.

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Most Recent Customer Reviews

5.0 out of 5 stars A surreal story, brilliantly told.
Get ready for a zany roller-coaster ride that becomes more bizarre the further you get into this surreal story. Read more

Published 1 month ago by Mr. A. J. Moreton

1.0 out of 5 stars One of the worst books I have ever read.
I hated this, I hate the writing style, I hate the content and I hate that I wasted even a small part of my life on this utter rubbish! Read more

Published 7 months ago by plot hound

4.0 out of 5 stars Humourous, satirical and thought-provoking
Bizarre yet familiar, heart-warming yet chilling, this book keeps you reading, makes you laugh and also makes you think about life and your effect on it. Read more

Published 8 months ago by Valerie Pointon

5.0 out of 5 stars Great
When I started this book I got the impression the writer was a pompous university graduate who loved his thesaurus. Read more

Published 8 months ago by bushmins

2.0 out of 5 stars Too many adjectives...
I downloaded this book because it was free and the reviews were good. After the first paragraph I realised that the reviewers and I disagree drastically. Read more

Published 8 months ago by Sam Whittam

4.0 out of 5 stars Entertaining Escapism
The End of the World

A very interesting read. A great way to pass a few hours and I found my thoughts returning to Mrs Anna's B&B after I closed the last page. Read more

Published 8 months ago by Mrs Mac

4.0 out of 5 stars Intriguing
I started this book as I was looking for a short story to read in between a longer novel.

From the start I found the writing style very easy to get along with and the... Read more

Published 8 months ago by Mace

5.0 out of 5 stars Surreal Story
This is a surreal, clever, literary story by an award-winning playwright. Though it's much shorter than A Confederacy of Dunces, if you have read that book or The Third Policeman,... Read more

Published 10 months ago by Helen Smith

› See all 11 customer reviews on Amazon.co.uk

Popular Highlights

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the voyage of discovery is not in seeking new landscapes but in having new eyes. &quote;

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we dont receive wisdom we must discover it for ourselves after a journey that no one can take for us or spare us from. &quote;

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the future is now. Yesterday is tomorrows past. Today has, alas, come and gone, leaving nothing but the memory of the present in your future history. It is time that you embraced what hasnt happened. &quote;

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