About the Book
Up in the Air meets Inception in this smart, innovative, genre-synthesizing novel from the acclaimed author of Care of Wooden Floors--hailed as "Fawlty Towers crossed with Freud," by the Daily Telegraph--that takes the polished surfaces of modern life, the branded coffee, and the free wifi, and twists them into a surrealistic nightmare of infinite proportions.
Neil Double is a "conference surrogate," hired by his clients to attend industry conferences so that they don't have to. It's a life of budget travel, cheap suits, and out-of-town exhibition centers--a kind of paradise for Neil, who has reconstructed his incognito professional life into a toxic and selfish personal philosophy. But his latest job, at a conference of conference organizers, will radically transform him and everything he believes as it unexpectedly draws him into a bizarre and speculative mystery.
In a brand new Way Inn--a global chain of identikit mid-budget motels--in an airport hinterland, he meets a woman he has seen before in strange and unsettling circumstances. She hints at an astonishing truth about this mundane world filled with fake smiles and piped muzak. But before Neil can learn more, she vanishes. Intrigued, he tries to find her--a search that will lead him down the rabbit hole, into an eerily familiar place where he will discover a dark and disturbing secret about the Way Inn. Caught on a metaphysical Mobius strip, Neil discovers that there may be no way out.
About the Author :
Will Wiles is the author of the novel Care of Wooden Floors and is an architecture and design journalist in Great Britain. His writing has appeared in Cabinet magazine, New Statesman, and other UK publications. He lives in London.
Review :
Praise for Care of Wooden Floors:
"Darkly humorous. . . . A strikingly original debut." - Publishers Weekly (starred review)
"Utterly wonderful." - J. Robert Lennon, author of Mailman and the forthcoming See You in November
"This novel feels like a blend of Thomas Pynchon's Entropy, John Cheever's The Swimmer, Edgar Allan Poe's The Tell Tale Heart, and any of Robert Coover's stories that push the limits of realistic actions." - North American Review
Praise for The Way Inn
"I devoured this impressive and enthralling novel. If you ever explored hotel corridors or played in hotel lifts as a child, be glad it wasn't in this hotel.' - Alison Moore, author of the Man Booker finalist The Lighthouse
"An ingenious and smartly funny novel." - Daily Mail (London)
"The Way Inn is funny, clever and thrilling, its central conceit disturbing enough to demand that you read it outside, if you can." - The Guardian
"I loved The Way Inn, [which] strikes me as the first authentically post-Ballardian vision of the world as it has become and as it is going to continue to be...Will Wiles is a mature, expert and wonderfully original talent." - Christopher Priest, author of The Prestige
"Wonderfully original and bitingly funny...the finest social comedy...In the hierarchy of dystopian novels, The Way Inn is special because it accurately describes the dystopia we are already living in. It is a stunningly good read. - Strange Horizons
"Highly idiosyncratic, well-written, with a vivid sense of place-and weirdly compelling." - Michael Frayn, author of Skios and Headlong
"One of the funniest and cleverest books of the year.....Care of Wooden Floors reads like a farce directed by Alfred Hitchcock, and the novel's denouement will surprise even the most jaded readers." - Washington Independent Review of Books
"Fawlty Towers crossed with Freud." - Daily Telegraph (London)
"One of the most brilliant and entertaining literary debuts this year. The precision of his language and the care with which he delineates the characters and their environment is nothing less than astounding." - Pittsburg Post-Gazette
"A nicely turned satire on the notion that the path to spiritual contentment lies in a pristine set of polished wooden floorboards... CARE OF WOODEN FLOORS indicates that Wiles has an eye for beauty, but an even more impressive eye for ugliness. It's a novel full of impeccably stylish writing." - The Guardian
"This is a terrific first novel, written with a very engaging deadpan wit, and an understated sense of the absurd." - The Times (London)
"If you are a fan of Kafka, you should enjoy this novel, which is reminiscent of The Metamorphosis." - Kirkus Reviews
"Thrilling, darkly comic disaster [is] lurking in every movement, wine bottle, and floorboard." - Daily Beast
"This novel has everything I look for: Line by line the sentences are a pleasure, page by page the story enthralls, and as a whole, the novel is expertly constructed, each precisely cut plank snapping perfectly into place. Clever, funny, creepy, atmospheric, and very entertaining. I realize that's a lot of adjectives, but read the book and you'll see." - Charles Yu, author of How to Live Safely in a Science Fictional Universe
"Funny, beguiling, and quietly profound . . . a wonderfully well-crafted debut." - Times Literary Supplement (London)
"If, like me, you've ever thought that your productivity and creativity would explode if only you could get organized, let this be a (morbidly funny) wakeup call....A precisely written debut from one who knows the value of letting loose." - Minneapolis Star Tribune
"Guffaw-out-loud moments...married to the horrified recognition that provokes empathy. A very funny novel provoking schadenfreude and belly laughs." - The Independent
