Following his expulsion from school, seventeen-year-old dreamer Ellis Dau is sent to work with his father. His father is editor of The Chronicle, the last bastion of free speech in their strange, strange land. And it is under threat: from heavy-handed policemen, mysterious revolutionaries, and the resident Russian billionaire.
As Ellis navigates his collapsing, blacked-out city – and his feelings for the oligarch’s beautiful daughter – he realises that some things are worth fighting for. But can he save his family and the newspaper fuelled only by youth, grain spirit and unrequited love?
Read by Max Dowler
(p) 2017 Orion Publishing Group
As Ellis navigates his collapsing, blacked-out city – and his feelings for the oligarch’s beautiful daughter – he realises that some things are worth fighting for. But can he save his family and the newspaper fuelled only by youth, grain spirit and unrequited love?
Read by Max Dowler
(p) 2017 Orion Publishing Group
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Reviews
Take Sacha Baron Cohen, add a twist of Kafka and lace it with Groucho Marx. You're entering the surreal and blackly funny world of Simon Wroe. A brilliant novel by a very special writer
Far funnier than any account of approaching far-right revolution has the right to be. Highly recommended
I loved this rollercoaster of a ride into a corrupt, fictitious country that feels only too hideously real. Highly recommended
A tour de force. A page-dazzler. A dark dream that may come true
Scarily prophetic about news, freedom and truth. Whip smart and very funny
'Raucous and inventive, peopled with technicolour characters and savagely funny, Chop Chop announces Simon Wroe as both an heir to Martin Amis and an oven-fresh talent unto himself'
Depicts the literal underworld of a restaurant kitchen with wit, vigor, and gleeful, necessary profanity
Dark, pungent, twisted, surprising and above all genuinely funny. If you enjoy eating out, don't read this book
Perfectly baked [with] a rich, gooey pool of dark comedy hiding beneath the surface
Brutally funny... Sometimes the truth is so strange it needs to be sautéed in a pan of fiction
Dave Eggers channels Anthony Bourdain
A complete page-turner. Reminiscent of Kitchen Confidential but with an entirely fresh voice that is a pleasure to read
A greasy, hilarious tale of loyalty, revenge and dark appetites. A gripping look behind the kitchen wall
Brace yourself for this lively, amusing and alarmingly informative novel
A great kitchen novel. From describing the battle-scarred hands of a chef to the overall rhythm that goes into making every plate of food, Wroe . . . makes this ugly world delicious
Lip-smacking . . . As shocking and witty as it is savage
As resonant as Orwell's 1984
1984 brought up to date with teenage black humour and hormones
Clear-eyed and caustic... Nineteen Eighty-Four crossed with Adrian Mole
Often very funny and always pacy, Wroe's novel is at once a capering Bildungsroman and a serious examination of how easily democracy can crumble if the institutions and morals that keep it robust are attacked
sets out comically and satirically what can happen when the rules break down
Crammed full of funny lines, dazzlingly perceptive and witty