or
Sign in to turn on 1-Click ordering.
 
 
More Buying Choices
39 used & new from £0.01
Have one to sell? Sell yours here
 
   
Surveillance: A Novel
 
See larger image 
Share your own customer images
Publisher: learn how customers can search inside this book.

Surveillance: A Novel (Paperback)

by Jonathan Raban (Author)
2.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (11 customer reviews)
RRP: £7.99
Price: £7.19 & this item Delivered FREE in the UK with Super Saver Delivery. See details and conditions
You Save: £0.80 (10%)
o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o
In stock.
Dispatched from and sold by Amazon.co.uk. Gift-wrap available.

Only 2 left in stock--order soon (more on the way).

Want guaranteed delivery by Thursday, February 11? Choose Express delivery at checkout. See Details
24 new from £0.01 15 used from £0.01
Other Editions: RRP: Our Price: Other Offers:
Hardcover (First Edition) £16.99 £14.44 54 used & new from £0.01
Paperback £21.55 £22.11 2 used & new from £22.11

Frequently Bought Together

Surveillance: A Novel + Soft City + Hunting Mr. Heartbreak (Picador Books)
Total RRP: £23.97
Price For All Three: £19.15

Show availability and delivery details

Customers Who Bought This Item Also Bought

Soft City

Soft City

by Jonathan Raban
5.0 out of 5 stars (1)  £5.98
Waxwings

Waxwings

by Jonathan Raban
5.0 out of 5 stars (2)  £7.99
Hunting Mr. Heartbreak (Picador Books)

Hunting Mr. Heartbreak (Picador Books)

by Jonathan Raban
5.0 out of 5 stars (3)  £5.98
Foreign Land (Picador Books)

Foreign Land (Picador Books)

by Jonathan Raban
£7.19
Bad Land

Bad Land

by Jonathan Raban
4.3 out of 5 stars (6)  £6.17
› Explore similar items

Product details

  • Paperback: 336 pages
  • Publisher: Picador (7 Sep 2007)
  • Language English
  • ISBN-10: 0330418394
  • ISBN-13: 978-0330418393
  • Product Dimensions: 19.6 x 13 x 2.2 cm
  • Average Customer Review: 2.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (11 customer reviews)
  • Amazon.co.uk Sales Rank: 339,090 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

    •  Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?

Product Description

Daily Telegraph

'An impressively vague novel, shot through with storylines that are left teasingly unresolved at the climax'

Observer

'Jonathan Raban plausibly ramps up modern fears to create an atmosphere of menace'
See all Product Description

Tags Customers Associate with This Product

 (What's this?)
Click on a tag to find related items, discussions, and people.
 
(1)
(1)
Agree with these tags?

Your tags: Add your first tag
 
See most popular tags

What Do Customers Ultimately Buy After Viewing This Item?

Surveillance: A Novel
59% buy the item featured on this page:
Surveillance: A Novel 2.5 out of 5 stars (11)
£7.19
Bad Land
12% buy
Bad Land 4.3 out of 5 stars (6)
£6.17
Coasting (Picador Books)
12% buy
Coasting (Picador Books) 4.4 out of 5 stars (8)
£4.98
Passage To Juneau: A Sea and Its Meaning
9% buy
Passage To Juneau: A Sea and Its Meaning 4.4 out of 5 stars (11)
Explore similar items
 

Customer Reviews

11 Reviews
5 star:
 (2)
4 star:
 (2)
3 star:    (0)
2 star:
 (2)
1 star:
 (5)
 
 
 
 
 
Average Customer Review
2.5 out of 5 stars (11 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
Share your thoughts with other customers:
Most Helpful Customer Reviews

 
8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars A terrifically enjoyable novel, 17 Jan 2007
By R. Hollier (Guildford, UK) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   
This review is from: Surveillance (Hardcover)
It's perhaps asking for trouble to submit a sober-faced assessment of a book in which an Amazon reviewer appears as part of the plot. To cut a long story short, my only reason for sending these words down the ether is to tell you how damned good Surveillance is.

Among other delights, Surveillance offers a couple of pages of witty observations on the different styles of reviewers on amazon.co.uk versus those on amazon.com. These make you think, yes, here's a writer who's unashamedly plugged into the modern world.

I don't mean by this that Surveillance sets out to be trendy. Not at all - but Mr Raban is definitely a writer open to the experience of the new in a refreshingly fluid and open-minded sort of a way. There is an absence of dogma. Nothing is fusty.

In this novel Lucy Bengstrom makes for an engaging female protagonist - a freelance journalist in Seattle who picks up an assignment to interview the author of a memoir about experiences during and immediately after the Second World War. She then has to pick her way through a jumble of received wisdom, half-truths and distorted fictions in an effort to grasp the truth.

Surveillance has characters in common with Mr Raban's earlier Waxwings but you don't need to have read the earlier book to enjoy the new one. The broad theme of surveillance inspires anxiety and even neurosis, but I found this to be an optimistic and uplifting book.

In summary, Surveillance was one of my favourite couple of novels from 2006. Highly recommended (as, indeed, is Waxwings).
Help other customers find the most helpful reviews  
Was this review helpful to you? Yes No


 
3 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
1.0 out of 5 stars The book that even the author couldn't finish..., 1 Oct 2007
By JJS (Devon, UK) - See all my reviews
I've never written a review before, but felt so cheated as I finished reading Surveillance that I was compelled to share my views.

Surveillance sells itself as a look at post-911 society and the paranoia that every move we make is scrutinised by the all-seeing government. This was obviously dreamt up by the publishers marketing department, attempting to cash in on that popular genre. The book itself is a big let down if you were hoping for something along those lines.

The worst thing is that just as the book is building to a climax, rather than resolving the various storylines, the author simply abruptly ends it. At first, I thought my copy had been misprinted without the final chapter. It's as though the author had been asked to turn in an x page manuscript, got to that and thought, "Oh, well, I'll pop that in the post and get my fee". I was left very irritated and annoyed that I'd bothered to spend my time reading it.

Mr Raban, please finish your book and let us know what happens to your characters...
Help other customers find the most helpful reviews  
Was this review helpful to you? Yes No


 
2 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
1.0 out of 5 stars Lazy author cheats his readers., 23 Nov 2007
Just when it starts to get interesting, the author kills the story stone dead with an earthquake - end of story - end of review.
Help other customers find the most helpful reviews  
Was this review helpful to you? Yes No

Share your thoughts with other customers: Create your own review
 
 
 
Most Recent Customer Reviews

4.0 out of 5 stars Sitting on the fence!
At two in the morning I read the final chapter of Surveillance... and like other reviewers was shocked at the end. But surely this is what we were meant to feel! Read more
Published 9 months ago by bookworm

2.0 out of 5 stars no plot resolution
being from seattle, i enjoyed this book and read it in 2 days. i could totally relate to tad's late night newsreading (but that's all). Read more
Published 10 months ago by J. Cohen

4.0 out of 5 stars One chaper too few
I've read and enjoyed all of Jonathan Raban's books. He is excellent at putting words onto paper in such a way that you cannot fail to want to read them. Read more
Published 22 months ago by Martin A. Chambers

5.0 out of 5 stars Brilliant book - don't read the other reviews - they will ruin your enjoyment.
Another fantastic totally absorbing book from Raban, it follows on from Waxwings his previous book about Seattle. Read more
Published on 27 Jan 2008 by Sarah Theodosiou

1.0 out of 5 stars Now, where did I put that ending?
Don't get sucked in by the (numerous) positive quotes on the cover/back/inside of this book as I don't think any of the reviewers actually read the novel to the end (if you can... Read more
Published on 22 Jan 2008 by Larry Gaymaker

1.0 out of 5 stars Don't bother
The conceit here is that the author endeavours to build up various interwoven plotlines so as - I imagine - to instill a sense of paranoia in the reader, and then to bring it all... Read more
Published on 29 Dec 2007 by S. ALLMAN

2.0 out of 5 stars A good book that failed
This is not a book I would normally read, but my wife bought me this and she has a habit of buying me great books I would never otherwise of looked at. Read more
Published on 7 Nov 2007 by J. Fraser

1.0 out of 5 stars Skip this one
I was influenced by the hyperbole on the cover and Raban's track record, but on reading this novel I found the story lacking and unresolved. Read more
Published on 3 Nov 2007 by Chris Pearson

Only search this product's reviews


Customer Discussions

This product's forum
Discussion Replies Latest Post
No discussions yet

Ask questions, Share opinions, Gain insight
Start a new discussion
Topic:
First post:
Prompts for sign-in
 


Active discussions in related forums
   
Related forums

Listmania!

Create a Listmania! list

Look for similar items by category

Look for similar items by subject










i.e., each product must be in subject 1 AND subject 2 AND ...

Feedback


Your Recent History

 (What's this?)

After viewing product detail pages or search results, look here to find an easy way to navigate back to pages you are interested in.