Journey to the End of the Night by Louis-Ferdinand Céline

 Often I recommend a book on the basis of finding it incredibly funny, only for the recommendee to question my stability – Journey To The End Of The Night by Louis-Ferdinand Celine is one such book. A searing, fictionalised account of the author’s delirious, embattled experiences in WW1 and beyond, the book’s creative use of language – drawing on slang and neologisms – lends a presence and urgency to tales of cruelty, violence and futility. Irony arises from the various characters doomed and ridiculous attempts to influence their own fate. Essential reading for fans of Houellebecq, Pessoa, Beckett, Hamsun.

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Narrator Justin Avoth captures Céline’s unique voice and the depths of his dark journey in this captivating recording.

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Céline is the prose stylist of the century; one of France’s greatest writers, and a national disgrace.
Tibor Fischer, The Guardian*

Bookshop Choice: Chosen by Michael Lacey at Dead Ink Books, Liverpool. 

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Length: 17 hours and 42 minutes