Awards

Bollinger Everyman Wodehouse Prize : Shortlist 2008

Desmond Elliott Prize : Longlist 2008

Synopsis

Hello. I'm Oliver Tate, the protagonist. I am likely to use words like protagonist and, moments later, words like twonk. My ambitions are as follows: 1) To find out why my father sometimes stays in bed for days at a time. 2) To find out why my mother's getting surfing lessons – and probably more – from a hippy-looking twonk 3) To lose my virginity before it becomes legal – in just over a year.

I am monitoring my parent's intimacy via the dimmer switch in their bedroom. My parents have not had sex in two months which, my research suggests, points toward impending marital breakdown. There are other, lesser characters in the book: Jordana, who is my love interest, despite her eczema. Zoe, whose only real schoolfriend is a dinner lady. I feel sorry for Zoe which, in turn, makes me feel better about my own life. Then there's my friend Chips, an outstanding bully. He made our Religious Education teacher cry. This book might not change my life. But there is no telling how you will react.

Critic Review:

‘young newcomer Joe Dunthorne’s cheerfully peculiar 15-year-old narrator is a worth successor to Adrian Mole.’

Saturday Guardian

‘Dunthorne, 25, is a prize-winning poet and this funny coming-of-age tale is his first novel … Submarine is inconsequential and precocious, but Dunthorne turns this into a virtue.’

Arena

‘Funny, smart and especially engaging on the relationship between parents and troublesome teenagers, Dunthorne's writing rings bitterly true.’

Harpers Bazaar

‘A funny, endearing debut'

Elle

‘Dunthorne captures the mores of Britain today better than novelists twice his age. He is sure to write books that declare more than their vocabulary.’

New Statesman

‘Perfectly pitched... Dunthorne can make you laugh like you did during double physics on a wet Wednesday afternoon.’

The Observer

‘This is a brilliant first novel, by a young man of ferocious comic talent - Oliver is the finest teenage narrator since Adrian Mole.’

The Times

‘A charming update on the coming-of-age story.’

BBC Radio 2

‘Joe Dunthorne is a talented writer of whom we'll hear more.’

Mail on Sunday