The Gone-Away World [Paperback]

Its scope and ambition are extraordinary, its execution is often breathtaking, and its style is by turns hilarious, outrageous, devastating, hip and profound...Hugely entertaining --Independent on Sunday

Breathtakingly ambitious...A bubbling cosmic stew of a book, written with such exuberant imagination that you are left breathless by its sheer ingenuity --Observer

A stunning debut --Scotland on sunday

There are delightful moments aplenty ... Any author who has come up with the beautifully silly plan of melding a kung-fu epic with an Iraq-war satire and a Mad Max adventure has to be worth keeping an eye on -- Guardian

Has the pace and action of an episode of 24 ... the agility of the narrative is one of the great strengths of this book ... Harkaway is robustly confident ... Particularly effective are his Matrix-like fight scenes, brought to life in meticulous yet flowing prose --The Times

`Breathtakingly ambitious ... A bubbling cosmic stew of a book, written with such exuberant imagination that you are left breathless by its sheer ingenuity' --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

`With his debut The Gone-Away World, Nick Harkaway has created a fictional universe that is out of this world.' --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

`A big new book by a big new writer. Well done! Harkaway describes the Gone-Away World in words that whiz and ping like bullets ricocheting off the walls of the reader's mind. He's the real thing.' --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

The literary debut of 2008 - part adventure, part comic opera, part geek nirvana

`[A] post-apocalyptic triumph ... Immensely rewarding ... Genuinely terrifying' --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

`A sprawling odyssey of a novel, half swashbuckling adventure, half science-fiction, but with such engaging characters that neither genre threatens to overpower the barnstorming narrative ... Comparisons are mostly futile, but it recalls Joseph Heller - Harkaway is a deft comic writer - and parts of it can best be described as what Thackeray might produce if he were on acid' --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

`There are delightful moments aplenty ... Any author who has come up with the beautifully silly plan of melding a kung-fu epic with an Iraq-war satire and a Mad Max adventure has to be worth keeping an eye on' --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

`A genuine panoramic, 3D, surround-sound, total-immersion, thrill-factor ten miracle - it is the kind of book that you just don't want to end! ... Engrossing, action-packed ... Very highly recommended' --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

`Exuberant ... Wildly inventive' --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

The Jorgmund Pipe is the backbone of the world, and it's on fire. Gonzo Lubitsch, professional hero and troubleshooter, is hired to put it out - but there's more to the fire, and the Pipe itself, than meets the eye. The job will take Gonzo and his best friend, our narrator, back to their own beginnings and into the dark heart of the Jorgmund Company itself.

Equal parts raucous adventure, comic odyssey and Romantic Epic, The Gone-Away World is a story of - among other things - love and loss; of ninjas, pirates, politics; of curious heroism in strange and dangerous places; and of a friendship stretched beyond its limits. But it also the story of a world, not unlike our own, in desperate need of heroes - however unlikely they may seem.

'Breathtakingly ambitious...A bubbling cosmic stew of a book, written with such exuberant imagination that you are left breathless by its sheer ingenuity' Observer

The Jorgmund Pipe is the backbone of the world, and it's on fire. Gonzo Lubitsch, professional hero and troubleshooter, is hired to put it out - but there's more to the fire, and the Pipe itself, than meets the eye. The job will take Gonzo and his best friend, our narrator, back to their own beginnings and into the dark heart of the Jorgmund Company itself.

Equal parts raucous adventure, comic odyssey and geek nirvana, The Gone-Away World is a story of - among other things - love and loss; of ninjas, pirates, politics; of curious heroism in strange and dangerous places; and of a friendship stretched beyond its limits. But it also the story of a world, not unlike our own, in desperate need of heroes - however unlikely they may seem.

'A brilliant, stunning novel' Scott Smith

Nick Harkaway was born in Cornwall in 1972. He studied philosophy, sociology, and politics at Clare College, Cambridge, and then worked in the film industry. The Gone-Away World is his first novel. He lives in London with his wife.