Martin Amis

'Utterly compelling' GuardianLife...is shapeless, it does not point to and gather round anything, it does not cohere. Artistically, it's dead. Life's dead. So begins a love letter to life, a resuscitation of sorts, encountering vibrant characters from Saul Bellow, to Philip Larkin to Iris Murdoch and Elizabeth Jane Howard, and to the person who captivated Amis' twenties, the alluringly amoral Phoebe Phelps. Amis addresses our burning questions: how to live, how to grieve, and how to die?

Tod. T. Friendly is living his life backwards. Doctor Friendly has just died, but after weeks of improving in the hospital, he is sent home to his affable, melting-pot, primary-colour existence in suburban America. From the fresh-cut lawns of his retirement to the hustle of New York, and then the boat back to war-torn Europe, Friendly carries with him a secret. Trapped in his body from grave to cradle, Friendly's consciousness can only watch as he struggles to make sense of the good doctor's most ambitious project yet - the final solution. SHORTLISTED FOR THE BOOKER PRIZE'Amis's most daring and ambitious novel' Daily Telegraph