- Paperback: 256 pages
- Publisher: Myrmidon Books Ltd; New Ed edition (25 Nov 2006)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 190580203X
- ISBN-13: 978-1905802036
- Product Dimensions: 21.1 x 13.5 x 2.3 cm
- Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars See all reviews (13 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 605,113 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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Product Description
Review
"Sebastian Beaumont's novel Thirteen is the best thing I have read this year and one of the two or three finest books I have come across since the new century kicked in." --Scott Pack
"Sebastian Beaumont pulls off two impressive feats in his first novel. He writes a colloquial, first-person narrative that is consistently engaging; and he creates a dreamlike, alternate world without stretching the reader's credulity or patience." --Nicholas Clee, The Guardian
"Stimulating and entertaining" --Francis King
"Sebastian Beaumont pulls off two impressive feats in his first novel. He writes a colloquial, first-person narrative that is consistently engaging; and he creates a dreamlike, alternate world without stretching the reader's credulity or patience." --Nicholas Clee, The Guardian
"Stimulating and entertaining" --Francis King
Product Description
Thirteen is not a number, it is a state of mind. "Thirteen" is the story of Stephen Bardot, a taxi driver working on the night shift in Brighton. He works such long shifts that he is often driving while exhausted, and it is then that he starts to experience major alterations to his perception of reality. People start to take lifts in his cab who know things they shouldn't, and who ultimately may not even be real, although the question of what constitutes reality forms one of the basic themes of the novel. He regularly gives lifts to Valerie - beautiful, haunting, but terminal - from 13 Wish Road to her 'positive thinking classes' at the Cornerstone Community Centre on Palmeira Square. When he is no longer asked to collect her, he fears that she is dead, and queries this with Sal, one of the night operators. Her response turns Stephen's world upside down. 'But Stephen,' she tells him, 'there is no such address. Wish Road doesn't have a number thirteen.' She's right. Wish Road's odd numbers are 7, 9, 11, 11a, 15, 17...And number 11a looks totally different from the house he thinks of as number Thirteen. So where has he been collecting Valerie from all this time? A house that doesn't exist? As time passes, the world gets weirder. People appear (and disappear) who know far too much about Stephen and his past, and who lure him further and further into the twilight world of Thirteen. But if he asks any questions, he gets hurt. Ultimately, he decides, for the sake of both his safety and his sanity, he must walk away. But "Thirteen" has no intention of letting him go...
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Intense,
By
This review is from: Thirteen (Paperback)
I was hooked on this one from the moment I picked it up. I love books that play around with the idea of what is real and what isn't. Having a central character (Stephen Bardot) who is a taxi driver working a night shift is a great way of introducing weird characters and strange atmospheres. The author conjures up that spooky middle-of-the-night way of thinking, and runs with it as far as it is possible to take it. I've never really thought of wrestling with your own unconscious as a life-or-death struggle, but that is exactly what Stephen faces. Self-knowledge comes at a hefty price here and it is sometimes unclear whether it is worth it. I found the story spine tingling, macabre and wildly funny by turns.
8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Lucky for some...,
By
This review is from: Thirteen (Paperback)
Beaumont's debut is assured, compelling and elegant.Anyone who has ever experienced the lifestyle, stresses and strangeness associated with nocturnal taxi-driving will easily empathise with the narrator, and Beaumont builds nicely on that initial sympathy to draw the reader into a macabre dreamscape where the hypnological and hallucinatory lock horns over the sanity of the exhausted, confused driver. I read this in two sittings and it lingered for days - a slow-burner of a story, infused with memory, guilt, and dominated by the surreal, Bacon-esque threesome involving the tangled limbs of landscape, memory and relationships. An excellent debut, and beautifully produced too.
5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A thoroughly engrossing read,
By
This review is from: Thirteen (Paperback)
Reading this book, I felt as if I had entered another dimension, a strange world where everything was slightly off-centre. Stephen ( the central character ) is a believable and likeable companion on the journey. The little anecdotes about the passengers he carries in his taxi are so realistic, that the "fantasy" elements of the story are grounded by these day to day events, and the whole thing just sucks you in. A very readable writing style, it was definitely a pleasure to spend time with this author.
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