?If I had urinated immediately after breakfast, the Mob would never have burnt down the Orphanage.? So begins the hilarious, genre-busting tale of Jude, a Tipperary-reared orphan who on his 18th birthday sets off to discover the wide world and his true parentage. His picaresque adventures take him first to the ?Sodom of the West? - Galway - where he falls in love, encounters temptations galore and, disguised as Stephen Hawking, unwittingly blows up the HQ of a Multi-National Corporation - and himself. With his face reconstructed into the spitting image of Leonardo DiCaprio (apart from the small matter of an erectile nose) Jude travels on foot to the inferno of Dublin, in hot pursuit of Angela, ex-Galway chipshop employee and his True Love. A spectacular chase through the city of Ulysses ensues, transformed by Gough's talent into a dazzling metaphor of 21st century violence, alienation and progress. Jude is, in the author's words, ?An attempt to write the most serious comic novel of the young millennium?; it is certainly one of the funniest. Levels II and III will be published online in instalments, beginning in July 2007, with a hardback of the whole to follow in 2008. 'Click here to read Julian's brilliant essay on the modern novel, published in this month's Prospect.' Buy this title Read extract Listen to an audio extract The Critics "On the cover, the comedian Tommy Tiernan declares it 'the best comic novel I have ever read'. This rather put me off, but when I found myself laughing out loud yet again, and still only on page 6, it seemed almost an understatement ... and it only gets better. Don't miss it." Click here for full review THE TMES ?Intelligent and deliciously dry, Gough's sparkling words can't fail to make you sit up, listen and laugh.? GLAMOUR ?Julian Gough is so good a writer, he should probably dispense with plot. What he has is an outstanding talent for comic scenes and for an evocation of balmy good nature.? THE OBSERVER ?Perfect, perfect comedy. A cross between Flann O'Brien, Father Ted and Morrisey. The best comic novel I've ever read? TOMMY TIERNAN ?Jude: Level 1, the hilarious new novel by Julian Gough, is a tour de farce, a comic chronicle of the history of the Irish psyche which takes the reader from the middle of the 20th century to the post-Celtic Tiger ennui of today, at breakneck speed.? GALWAY ADVERTISER ?Like Roddy Doyle in an extremely good mood? WASHINGTON POST The Author Julian Gough is the author of Juno sJuliet, published by Flamingo in 2001. He is also the lead singer of Toasted Heretic, which had a top ten hit in Ireland with Galway and Los Angeles, a song about not kissing Sinead O'Connor. He lives in Berlin.
