Then We Came to the End
JOSHUA FERRIS

Then We Came to the End by Joshua Ferris 392 reviews (2007) (400p) National Book Award Finalist New York Times® Best Fiction Books TIME Magazine Best Fiction Books

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Book Description

This wickedly funny, big-hearted novel about life in the office signals the arrival of a gloriously talented new writer. The characters in THEN WE CAME TO THE END cope with a business downturn in the time-honored way: through gossip, secret romance, elaborate pranks, and increasingly frequent coffee breaks. By day they compete for the best office furniture left behind and try to make sense of the mysterious pro-bono ad campaign that is their only remaining "work."

Amazon.com Review

Amazon Best of the Month Spotlight Title, April 2007: It's 2001. The dot-com bubble has burst and rolling layoffs have hit an unnamed Chicago advertising firm sending employees into an escalating siege mentality as their numbers dwindle. As a parade of employees depart, bankers boxes filled with their personal effects, those left behind raid their fallen comrades' offices, sifting through the detritus for the errant desk lamp or Aeron chair. Written with confidence in the tricky-to-pull-off first-person plural, the collective fishbowl perspective of the "we" voice nails the dynamics of cubicle culture--the deadlines, the gossip, the elaborate pranks to break the boredom, the joy of discovering free food in the breakroom. Arch, achingly funny, and surprisingly heartfelt, it's a view of how your work becomes a symbiotic part of your life. A dysfunctional family of misfits forced together and fondly remembered as it falls apart. Praised as "the Catch-22 of the business world" and "The Office meets Kafka," I'm happy to report that Joshua Ferris's brilliant debut lives up to every ounce of pre-publication hype and instantly became one of my favorite books of the year. --Brad Thomas Parsons

Other Award Winning Books by Joshua Ferris

To Rise Again at a Decent Hour by Joshua Ferris 174 reviews (2014) (352p) (Amazon Top100) (Booker) Read Reviews | Visit this book's Amazon.com page

Joshua Ferris Award Stats

Major Prize* Nominations 2   Unique Books Nominated for a Major Prize* 2   Pulitzer Prize Wins 0   Pulitzer Prize Nominations 0   National Book Critics Circle Award Wins 0   National Book Critics Circle Award Nominations 0   National Book Award Wins 0   National Book Award Nominations 1 Then We Came to the End ·   Man Booker Prize Wins 0   Man Booker Prize Nominations 1 To Rise Again at a Decent Hour ·   PEN/Faulkner Award Wins 0   PEN/Faulkner Award Nominations 0

*Major Prize = Pulitzer Prize, National Book Critics Circle Award, National Book Award, Man Booker Prize, and PEN/Faulkner Award

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