Product DescriptionAs the twentieth century breathes its very last, with Britpop at its zenith, twenty-seven-year-old A&R (artist and repertoire) man Steven Stelfox is slashing and burning his way through London's music industry. Blithely crisscrossing the globe in search of the next megahit--fueled by greed and inhuman quantities of cocaine--Stelfox freely indulges in an unending orgy of self-gratification. But the industry is changing fast and the hits are drying up, and the only way he's going to salvage his sagging career is by taking the idea of "cutthroat" to murderous new levels.From Publishers WeeklyWith the record industry in turmoil, this thoroughly twisted roman a clef from a former A&R insider couldn't seem timelier. Set in 1997, this debut novel follows the loathsome and morally bankrupt 27-year-old Steven Stelfox as he curses, drinks and snorts his way through a cutthroat career. Crass and bitter, Steven despises everything that originally inspired him, and as the bills pile up from his various illicit habits and ventures, he tries in vain to find the "next big thing" so he can secure another bundle of money. Satirizing Big Music, the novel brims with self-evident truths--as Steven explains, he usually only hits one in every 10 acts, but even that allows him to do better than most. As Steven's arrogance precariously struggles against a healthy dose of paranoia, he faces his ultimate nightmare: he might actually have to sober up, do some work and break out a decent record by a decent act. This is not for the easily offended, but readers with at least a slightly deranged bent will have a ball.(Jan.)Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.About the AuthorJohn Niven was born in Irvine, Ayrshire. He is the author of several novels, including Straight White Male and The Second Coming. He lives in Buckinghamshire, England.Review“I loved Kill Your Friends. Who didn’t? Scorched earth humor at its finest.” (Douglas Coupland, author of Microserfs )“Hilariously dark and satirical.” (Library Journal )“A very dark, viciously funny novel.” (Booklist )“This is not for the easily offended, but readers with at least a slightly deranged bent will have a ball.” (Publishers Weekly )“Kill Your Friends is the most exciting British novel since Trainspotting.” (Word magazine )“Like the product of an unholy union between Bret Easton Ellis and Martin Amis...the reader is alternately shocked and left crying with laughter.” (Bookseller (London) )From BooklistThis debut novel takes a withering look at the British music business in the late 1990s, during the hedonistic last gasp of a dying industry. Steven Stelfox is an A & R man with a major label who is desperately searching for his next hit—when he isn’t inhaling Bloody Marys, doing massive quantities of cocaine, or watching porn. He’s all but given up on the angry black rapper Rage, who is working on his “concept” album; instead, he’s focused on a group of Spice Girls wannabes, “the worst sort of sink-estate, single-mother, benefit-fraud trash imaginable.” And their music? “The biggest insult to humanity since a roomful of Nazis first cooed over the blueprints for Auschwitz.” Contemptuous of musicians, the public, and, most of all, any colleagues who show signs of working hard, Steven prepares to save himself with a murderously ambitious plan to be named the head of A & R. Niven, who spent 10 years working in the music industry, uses his insider knowledge and a racist, misogynistic lead character to produce a very dark, viciously funny novel. --Joanne Wilkinson