On the Bus Without a Phone - Babek Ganjei

Taking place over the course of a bus journey en route to a first date, Babek Ganjei’s debut novel charts the seemingly infinite disappointments, misunderstandings and humiliations that have piled up over the course of narrator Bob Green's life to date. Bob's immediate circumstances, and the cast of characters with which he shares them, provide the imaginative jumping off point for digressions on teenage love, suburban ennui, pornography, race and identity, mobile phones, Converse, adult love, fatherhood, fast food, MF DOOM, the etiquette of bus seating and, perhaps most importantly of all, The Remains of the Day. On the Bus Without A Phone is a dazzlingly intelligent, unashamedly comedic and ultimately moving work from a hugely original new writer. With his surrealist flair, world-weary melancholy and self-effacing humour, Ganjei is a Brautigan for the digital age.