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The Unfortunates, by B. S. Johnson

Introduction by Jonathan Coe

A gift "book in a box" by one of Britain's greatest modern writers.

One of the lost classics of the 1960s, and a legendary experiment in form, The Unfortunates is B. S. Johnson's famous "book in a box," in which the chapters are presented unbound, to be read in any order the reader chooses. It is one of the key works of a novelist now undergoing an enormous revival of interest.

A sportswriter, sent to a small town on a weekly assignment, finds himself confronted by ghosts from the past when he disembarks at the train station. Memories of one of his best, most trusted friends, a tragically young victim of cancer, begin to flood through his mind as he attempts to go about the routine business of reporting a soccer match.

The Unfortunates is a book of passionate honesty and dark, courageous humor: a meditation on death and a celebration of friendship which also offers a remarkably frank self-portrait of its author.

Click on the images below to see larger pictures.

B.S. (Bryan Stanley) Johnson (1933-1973) was an English experimental novelist, poet, critic and filmmaker.

Date of publication: May 2008