Service by John Tottenham

‘John Tottenham writes with a rare comic intensity’ Colm Toibin
‘My favourite nihilistic romantic’ Rachel Kushner

What’s this book about? Is there a restroom? Do you have gluten-free bagels? Do you work here? Do you have a restroom? Do I buy books or rent books or what?

The worst thing about a bookshop is the customers. Then there’s the gift-wrapping, the invoicing, the stock takes. The Yelp reviews that inevitably contribute to self-loathing.

In his late forties, Sean is still a frustrated bookseller who should have written his novel already. Instead, he spends his days drowning in his overwhelming sense of contempt -for LA, for its readers, for its casual disdain for service. And what, or whom, is he serving anyway?

Biting, hilarious and self-aware, John Tottenham’s debut novel is a razor-sharp dissection of the modern scourges of gentrification, male vanity, jealousy and the worth of literature in a digital age.

Life at a bookstore in LA through the eyes of a cynical English bookseller – irascible, witty and darkly humourous at his own expense and that of his unfortunate customers

About the Author: John Tottenham is the author of four volumes of poetry: The Inertia Variations (2004 & 2010), Antiepithalamia & Other Poems of Regret and Resentment (2012), The Hate Poems (2018), and Fresh Failure (2023). His long-standing column in Artillery is widely read, and his paintings and drawings have been exhibited in solo shows at galleries in Los Angeles and New York. Service is his first novel.

06 Nov 2025
 

Service by John Tottenham ISBN 9781805227021