Amazon Is a 'Merciless Commercial Engine'

Mark Haddon: Amazon Is a 'Merciless Commercial Engine'

Photo: Nigel Barklie Shelf Awareness

"Much as we love Amazon, we like bookshops much more, don't we? So we did an edition that is only available in physical, bricks-and-mortar bookshops. It was a way of saying: go and buy from a bookshop. Go into a real bookshop and buy it off some real people.... [Amazon is] a merciless commercial engine. Also because of the way it treats its staff. The way it treats its competitors."

--Mark Haddon, author most recently of The Pier Falls, speaking at the Cheltenham Literary festival about an illustrated edition published exclusively for U.K. bricks-and-mortar bookstores