This novel was a winner of the Somerset Maugham Prize.

"The only book about jazz that I have recommended to my friends. It is a little gem, with the distinction of being 'about' jazz rather than 'on' jazz. If closeness to the material determines a great solo, Mr Dyer's book is one." - KEITH JARRETT

"A genre-defying book. With Nick Hornby's Fever Pitch, it shows a way out of the dead ends of conventional fiction." - PETER JUKES, New Statesman

"Drawing on how he hearsthe music of people like Mingus, Monk, Bud Powell, Art Pepper, and on key photos of them, Dyer has constructed eight variations like highly concentrated novels, 80 per cent proof swigs of fiction. The result, I think, is brilliant..." - MILES KINGSTON, Independent On Sunday

GEOFF DYER is the author of three novels, a critical study of John Berger, and three other books.

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