Get Free eBook Sample
Danny Wallace is a writer, producer, and award-winning journalist whose work has appeared in numerous newspapers and magazines. He has written a weekly column in the U.K. magazine ShortList since 2007, and his past books include Join Me and Yes Man, which was made into a feature film starring Jim Carrey.
Charlotte Street
eBook
$6.99
-
ISBN-13:
9780062190581
- Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers
- Publication date: 10/23/2012
- Sold by: HARPERCOLLINS
- Format: eBook
- Pages: 416
- File size: 780 KB
Available on NOOK devices and apps
Want a NOOK? Explore Now
6.99
In Stock
Jason Priestley (no, not that Jason Priestley) is in a rut. He gave up his teaching job to write snarky reviews of cheap restaurants for the free newspaper you take but don't read. He lives above a video-game store, between a Polish newsstand and that place that everyone thinks is a brothel but isn't. His most recent Facebook status is "Jason Priestley is . . . eating soup." Jason's beginning to think he needs a change.
So he uncharacteristically moves to help a girl on the street who's struggling with an armload of packages, and she smiles an incredible smile at him before her cab pulls away. What for a fleeting moment felt like a beginning is cruelly cut short—until Jason realizes that he's been left holding a disposable camera. And suddenly, with prodding and an almost certainly disastrous offer of assistance from his socially inept best friend Dev, a coincidence-based, half-joking idea—What if he could track this girl down based on the photos in her camera?—morphs into a full-fledged quest to find the woman of Jason's dreams.
Customers Who Bought This Item Also Bought
-
- If Ever I Fall: A gripping,…
- by S.D. Robertson
-
- The Saga of the Century…
- by Rebecca West
-
- Starting Out in the Evening
- by Brian Morton
-
- Grab On to Me Tightly as if I…
- by Bryan Charles
-
- Town House: A Novel
- by Tish Cohen
-
- A Long, Long Time Ago &…
- by Brigid Pasulka
-
- News from Thrush Green
- by Miss Read
-
- The Brambles
- by Eliza Minot
-
- Leave It to Psmith
- by P. G. Wodehouse
-
- Remind Me Again Why I Need A…
- by Claudia Carroll
-
- The Gin Closet
- by Leslie Jamison
-
- Rumors of Peace: A Novel
- by Ella Leffland
-
- Me, Who Dove into the Heart of…
- by Sabina BermanLisa Dillman
Recently Viewed
Videos
Publishers Weekly
Wallace's delightful debut is the story of the hapless Jason Priestley (no, not that Jason Priestley), formerly an uninspiring teacher of uninspirable youth, now a reviewer of, among other things, "irritatingly forgettable" restaurants with names like "AbraKebabra" and "Pizza the Action." Although he's been dumped by girlfriend Sarah, Jason can't bring himself to unfriend her on Facebook; consequently, he is forced to read Sarah's "having the time of my life" status updates, while the best he can muster is "eating some soup." He now shares a questionable flat above a videogame shop with the owner and Jason's best friend, Dev. A chance encounter with a pretty stranger on Charlotte Street leaves Jason accidentally in possession of her disposable camera, though not of her name. At Dev's insistence, they develop the photos. Thereby hangs a tale, which wends its witty way through a road trip to Yorkshire with an auto mechanic, several run-ins with an angry political puppeteer, and a foray to a posh event promoting juices with acai. A lively supporting cast, including the Polish waitress Dev pines for, helps and/or thwarts Jason in pursuit of his mysterious stranger. The combination of Dickensian plot twists and Hornbyesque humor and hope makes for a thoroughly entertaining read. Agent: Simon Trewin, William Morris Endeaver (U.K.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.
The Independent on Sunday
[Danny Wallace is] as funny as Bill Bryson used to be.Daily Telegraph (London)
Danny Wallace may well have stumbled upon the future shape of spirituality… hilarious.Bookseller (London)
Another comedy masterpiece.The Independenton Sunday
"[Danny Wallace is] as funny as Bill Bryson used to be."Booklist
An amusing tale of an innocuous stalker.Cosmopolitan (UK)
Unmissable... will have you laughing out loud and melt your heart, all at once.GQ (UK)
One of Britain’s great writing talents.Library Journal
Wallace is perhaps best known for his humorous social experiments, as evidenced in the book and subsequent film adaptation Yes Man, about his agreeable year of saying yes to everything. Here, hye injects his humor into a hapless and comically named protagonist, Jason Priestly. A struggling freelance journalist for a city weekly, Jason finds meaning in life through a chance encounter with a woman and the disposable camera she left behind. Along with his friend Dev, who runs a used video-game store, Jason pieces together the clues from each photo in an attempt to discover the identity and whereabouts of this mystery woman. The chase results in fabricated art reviews, dubious ethical judgments, and elbow rubbing with London's public relations elite. Though lighthearted in tone, the novel speaks to a nostalgia for a time when photographs were authentic and unsullied by smartphone filters. VERDICT Wallace does a masterly job of transforming characters in an arrested state of development into heroic defenders of authentic experience. Readers who enjoy the work of Nick Hornby or Stephen Chbosky will enjoy this debut novel.—Joshua Finnell, Denison Univ. Lib., Granville, OH