The Echo Chamber
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  • Published: 17 May 2022
  • ISBN: 9781529176742
  • Imprint: Penguin
  • Format: Paperback
  • Pages: 528
  • RRP: $24.00

The Echo Chamber

Formats & editions
Paperback
17 May 2022
EBook
5 Aug 2021
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From the author of The Heart's Invisible Furies and in the wake of a hugely successful hardback publication, The Echo Chamber is 'uproariously funny. The world has never needed satire more urgently and Boyne delivers in spades.' (The Sunday Times)

'The funniest book I've read in ages. Savage but compelling' Ian Rankin
'A fearless romp with big laughs along the way' Graham Norton
'Funny, rumbustious, unstinting and wonderfully Hogarthian' The Observer
'His relish is infectious' Times
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What a thing of wonder a mobile phone is. Six ounces of metal, glass and plastic, fashioned into a sleek, shiny, precious object. At once, a gateway to other worlds - and a treacherous weapon in the hands of the unwary, the unwitting, the inept.

The Cleverley family live a gilded life, little realising how precarious their privilege is, just one tweet away from disaster. George, the patriarch, is a stalwart of television interviewing, a 'national treasure' (his words), his wife Beverley, a celebrated novelist (although not as celebrated as she would like), and their children, Nelson, Elizabeth, Achilles, various degrees of catastrophe waiting to happen.

Together they will go on a journey of discovery through the Hogarthian jungle of the modern living where past presumptions count for nothing and carefully curated reputations can be destroyed in an instant. Along the way they will learn how volatile, how outraged, how unforgiving the world can be when you step from the proscribed path.

Powered by John Boyne's characteristic humour and razor-sharp observation, The Echo Chamber is a satiric helter skelter, a dizzying downward spiral of action and consequence, poised somewhere between farce, absurdity and oblivion. To err is maybe to be human but to really foul things up you only need a phone.

'Sharp, funny, and beautifully written, but it's also a brilliant reflection on the landscape we now live in' Sunday Times bestselling author, Joanna Cannon
  • Published: 17 May 2022
  • ISBN: 9781529176742
  • Imprint: Penguin
  • Format: Paperback
  • Pages: 528
  • RRP: $24.00
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About the author

John Boyne

John Boyne was born in Ireland in 1971. He is the author of eleven novels for adults, six for younger readers and a collection of short stories. Perhaps best known for his 2006 multi-award-winning book The Boy In The Striped Pyjamas, John’s other novels, notably The Absolutist and A History of Loneliness, have been widely praised and are international bestsellers. Most recently, The Heart's Invisible Furies was a Richard & Judy Bookclub word-of-mouth bestseller, and A Ladder to the Sky was shortlisted for the Kerry Group Irish Novel of the Year Award in association with Listowel Writers’ Week.

His novels are published in over fifty languages.

portrait photo of John Boyne

Also by John Boyne

Air
Noah Barleywater Runs Away
Fire
Water
The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas
This House is Haunted
The Heart's Invisible Furies
See all

Praise for The Echo Chamber

The funniest book I've read in ages. Savage but compelling

Ian Rankin

A fearless romp with big laughs along the way

Graham Norton

A comedy of manners and lack of manners ... good fun and cheeky as hell

Ryan Tubridy

A blisteringly funny and razor sharp satire about social media, celebrity and political correctness. I laughed SO much

Hannah Beckerman

Sharp, funny, and beautifully written, but it's also a brilliant reflection on the landscape we now live in

Sunday Times bestselling author, Joanna Cannon

Great rollicking story-telling ... a terrific novel for our times.

Reader's Digest

Funny, rumbustious, unstinting and wonderfully Hogarthian

The Observer

His relish is infectious

The Times

An uproariously funny novel... John Boyne skilfully skewers the cruelties of social media and the absurdities of wokeness ... a brave and timely foray into the contemporary culture wars.

Financial Times

'Hugely enjoyable'

Good Housekeeping

John Boyne is at his wicked best... Excruciatingly funny

Saga

A funny, biting satire on the excesses and hypocrisy of social media

Sunday Independent

Relentlessly funny

Irish Independent

Plenty of laugh out loud moments . . . This is a sharp and extremely funny page-turner

Business Post Magazine

Uproariously funny. The world has never needed satire more urgently and Boyne delivers in spades.

The Sunday Times

Fun, fierce and furious, The Echo Chamber is a riotous read that is not to be missed.

Sunday Express

[Boyne] is an incredibly versatile author...[this] is a brilliant read...a sharply satirical novel...so current, so relevant, absolutely hilarious

New Books

Biting and very funny

The Times