Bloody Awful in Different Ways

The phenomenal internationally bestselling novel about a boy who has seven fathers in seven years- 'a little treasure of a book' - Fredrik Backman Once I had seven fathers in seven years. This is the story of those years. I'm fizzing. I love not being his son. Yes. I can feel it in my whole body. A great thrill - as if an adventure has begun. As if I'm the boy in a book about a boy who finds out his dad is the king of a magical and distant land. Christmas, 1983. In the aftermath of yet another furious argument, seven-year-old Andrev's mother lets him in on a secret- his father is, in fact, not his father. And so begins a new kind of childhood, in which fathers come and go, arriving in red Volvos and sweeping his mother off her feet. Fathers can be magicians or murderers, artists or thieves, and, like growing pains, or the weather, they appear uninvited and leave without warning. Fathers are drawn to his mother like moths to a flame - but even she can't control how they behave. Vivid and joyful, raw and tender, Bloody Awful in Different Ways is a novel about growing up in the chaos of social change; about how love begins and ends; and above all, about men. Because after all, you learn an awful lot about this strange species when you have seven fathers in seven years.

About the Author :
Andrev Walden is an acclaimed Swedish journalist and columnist who has worked for Dagens Nyheter and Aftonbladet. In 2017, he became the first columnist to be nominated for the Swedish Grand Prize for journalism, praised for his ability to 'find the everyday drama in the big questions', and to make us 'laugh and see the world, the family and ourselves in a new and slightly wiser light'. He lives in Stockholm. Bloody Awful in Different Ways is his first novel.

Review :
A LITTLE TREASURE OF A BOOK. Hilarious but vulnerable, clever but raw, and pure joyous storytelling on every page. You’ll come for the laughs, but you’ll stay for the love letter, from a grown man to his boy self, promising everything will be all right 'I challenge you not to fall in love with Andrev as he thrashes doggedly through life - perpetually hopeful and inept. This is a small gem of a novel, with an irresistible voice and a teasing sidelong wit This is a truly special novel. A delight from start to finish. Captures the joy and pain of being a teenager perfectly. I adored Andrev and already miss him Darkly funny ... Distinctive ... Walden’s instinct for observation and his ear for prose are flawless. His understated humour is particularly winning … The writing remains so sharp, so beguiling, so acutely observed A proven winner ... It tells you things about growing up that you didn’t realise were true, not until Walden put them into words ... Comparisons will inevitably be drawn with another Swedish novel, Fredrik Backman’s A Man Called Ove (2012). Similarly perceptive of human behaviour (albeit about an old man rather than a young one) and as tragicomic, that novel went from being Sweden’s bestselling book of 2013 to global blockbuster. There’s no reason why Bloody Awful in Different Ways can’t do the same. Bloody awful? Bloody brilliant, more like What a book! I laughed, cried, despaired and hoped for this young boy negotiating seven fathers in seven chaotic years, taking us with him for the wild ride. A story that reads this easily with consummate fluidity, pace and comic timing deserves the widest audience possible Walden’s story is rich with dark humour and tender coming-of-age moments that make this a brilliant and beguiling page-turner Darkly funny, and comically tragic. An absolute gem. I loved it Walden grips your attention with darkly comic verve, and there’s a truly ugly undertow to his portrait of toxic masculinity, rendered all the more shocking by the narrator’s partial understanding Walden has a distinctive voice and has crafted a wonderfully written page-turner that, despite its often bleak subject matter, made me laugh out loud