Trashland

A literary satire of ambition and celebrity-seeking in a nocturnal underground world of Edwardian nursery-tale characters trampled over by desperately modern detritus and cast-offs all trying to be some kind of somebody.

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In the dire twilight of a blazing afternoon, Herbie Peel is born in the kitchen sink of an upmarket farmhouse outside Toronto, with a cool patio out back shaded by an awning propped up in the best traditions of Jamaican sugar plantations.

'You're a fantastic writer, but pu...