My God, Brooks is a frightening young talent. In <i>Lolito</i>, he creates a multi-coloured, grubby little world that I'd really hate to read about if I was a parent. Magnetising, funny and disturbing, his prose is infectious and highly addictive. I loved it
- TIM KEY,
<i>Lolito </i>is the funniest, most horrible book I've read in years. I was blown away
- NICK CAVE,
I love Ben Brooks. And <i>Lolito</i> is really something else. A twisted age-gap love story that is deadpan and grubby and strangely poetic and funny and wrong and also very right. It is like how <i>The Graduate</i> would have ended up if Dustin Hoffman had watched a lot of <i>Loose Women</i> and drank Strongbow and spent too much time on the internet
- MATT HAIG,
<i>Grow Up</i> is absolutely knockout - Brooks has the timing of a genius stand-up comic. Top class
- RICHARD MILWARD,
Ben Brooks is a magical imp who pumps out dark nuggets of poetry and makes you snort with laughter
- NOEL FIELDING,
The most convincing portrayal of the adolescent mind since <i>Vernon God Little</i>
- EWAN MORRISON,
This is a totally convincing portrait of being a wayward teenager now, that only a teenager could have written
* Dazed & Confused *
Funny, witty and addictive, <i>Lolito</i> is a quirky and disturbing ball of energy that will consume readers until they have turned the last page
* The List *
Both warm and uncompromising,<i> Lolito</i> will be as entertaining for young adults as it is educational for older readers. And if some aspects of the world Brooks inhabits seem alarming, I can't think of a writer I would rather have as my guide
- Alice O’Keefe, * Guardian *
Ben Brooks made me think that I'm glad I was fifteen in 1974 rather than now. I'm not actually that crazy about being fifty-four right now
- Jim Murdoch, * The Truth About Lies *
A JERWOOD FICTION UNCOVERED PRIZE 2014 WINNER
She's online.
'I booked a hotel,' I say. 'Near Marble Arch.'
'That sounds great, hon. I can't wait to see you.'
'Yeah. Me too.'
'I'm vaguely nervous.'
'Don't be.'
Do be. I'm a child.
Lolito is a love story about a fifteen year-old boy who meets a middle-aged woman on the internet.
When his long-term girlfriend and first love Alice, betrays him at a house party, Etgar goes looking for cyber solace in the arms of Macy, a stunning but bored housewife he meets online. What could possibly go wrong . . . ?
Hilarious, fearless and utterly outrageous, Lolito is a truly twenty-first century love story.