Author(s): Lars Iyer

Novel | Humour & Satire | Fiction Reductions

In a work of blistering dark hilarity, a young Nietzsche experiences life in a metal band & the tribulations of finals season in a modern secondary school

When a new student transfers in from a posh private school, he falls in with a group of like-minded suburban stoners, artists, and outcasts--too smart and creative for their own good. His classmates nickname their new friend Nietzsche (for his braininess and bleak outlook on life), and decide he must be the front man of their metal band, now christened Nietzsche and the Burbs.

With the abyss of graduation--not to mention their first gig--looming ahead, the group ramps up their experimentations with sex, drugs, and...nihilist philosophy. Are they as doomed as their intellectual heroes? And why does the end of youth feel like such a universal tragedy?

And as they ponder life's biggies, this sly, elegant, and often laugh-out-loud funny story of would-be rebels becomes something special: an absorbing and stirring reminder of a particular, exciting yet bittersweet moment in life...and a reminder that all adolescents are philosophers, and all philosophers are adolescents at heart.

Review: "Nietzsche and the Burbs is an anthem for young misfits and a hilarious, triumphant book about friendship."-Michael Schaub, NPR

"This is a near-perfect evocation of childhood's elegiac end."-Michael M. Grynbaum, New York Times

"What a fun book this is! Delight is such a rare commodity nowadays and it is terrific to see it has not been hunted to extinction." -Daniel Handler, author of Bottle Grove

"Vivid, tickling and spry."-Leo Robson, Guardian

"Lyrical and often moving... an affectionate satire on intellectual life."-Andrew Irwin, Times Literary Supplement

"Like Iyer's previous fiction, Nietzsche and the Burbs is a novel of ideas ...[a] rollicking coming-of-age tale"-Calum Barnes, Morning Star