TINDERBOX

Megan Dunn   Tinderbox          160 pp.                                                      BIC: Narrative non-fiction                    Binding: Paperback         ISBN: 978-1-910296-82-0                   Publication date: 23 November 2017

 

“I know what temperature books burn at. Half price.”   “Megan Dunn’s writing is utterly modern, sharp, unsentimental and beautiful; she tells a gripping story laced with humour and pathos. She is a young writer to watch.” —Michele Roberts   “Megan Dunn is one of those rare young beings, a young writer of great talent. She possesses an even rarer combination of assets – a highly original voice, great subject matter, enormous insight and serious literary ambition.  Plus, she’s funny.  Her work leaps off the page and makes the reader want more.” —Kate Pullinger

 

Megan Dunn was in a hole. Her attempt to write a fictional tribute to Fahrenheit 451 wasn't going well. Borders, the bookseller she worked for, was going bust. Her marriage was failing. Her prospects were narrowing. The world wasn’t quite against her – but it wasn’t exactly helping either.   Riffing on Ray Bradbury's classic novel about the end of reading, Tinderbox is one of the most interesting books in decades about literary culture and its place in the world. More than that, it's about how every one of us fits into that bigger picture – and the struggle to make sense of life in the twenty-first century.				Megan Dunn studied Creative Writing at the University of East Anglia, graduating in 2006. She won an Escalator award from the New Writing Partnership (now The Writers’ Centre Norwich) and her short story The Mermaid and the Music Box was included in Roads Ahead, a 2009 anthology of new writers published by Tindal St Press. She lives in New Zealand where she is well known as a visual arts reviewer.
Tinderbox itself is a fantastic achievement: a wonderfully crafted and beautifully written work of non-fiction that is by turns brilliantly funny and achingly sad. … It will help ensure that you will never ever again be rude to anyone working in retail.    Tinderbox is one of the most successful books about failure you will ever read.