The dwarfs of death

One of the early novels of Jonathan Cow, who never came out in Russian. "Phantom Press" makes up for this gap. Laid in a detective canvas, slightly absurd phantasmagoria with musical accompaniment. William"s life is full of adversity. Its rock band gives out melodic songs that sound like a grotesque parody of Status Quo songs. His mysterious lover Madelin keeps strange inaccessibility. The director of the group is clearly passionate not so much by the business of musicians as with a mysterious crime. And the brilliant singer Karl does not want to have any business with the poor fellow. In a word, William believes that his seams have a matter - until he witnessed a terrible murder committed by strange dwarfs. And soon he turns from a witness into the main suspect ... rock and roll, murders, love, strange dreams and even more strange reality. This is the same Jonathan Cow that we love him. Funny, witty, scary, grotesque, with a slight raid of madness, a novel about music and painful youth.

Press about the book
At the same level, "dwarfs of death" are a classic detective nuar with symbols and atmosphere laid for Nuar. On the other, there is an almost romantic comedy about a naive young man trying to comprehend female incomprehensibility. On the third, this is a production rock and roll novel showing how rock is done. The Spectator

COU novels are filled with different voices and various intonations. He easily moves from social satire to light irony and humor, from lyrics to the syllable of a newspaper article, from oral conversation - to the diary. And Cow, of course, is rooted in the British novel tradition. He masterfully owns the plot construction, with a mystery, detective development of action at the base. Lenta.ru

The prose of Jonathan Cu is fierce and funny, but never rolls into a satire. Times Literary Supplement

Each romance of COU is both a delicate psychological lace, woven from halftones, and tough on the verge with an absurdity of satire. It was the combination of these two skills that to make fun of and at the same time touching almost to tears that made COU one of the most striking novelists of his generation. Jellyfish

COU is the most talented successor to Kingsley Emis, who used optimism as a weapon against those in power. But COU is completely different, although he is engaged in the same thing. The Los Angeles Times

One of the many advantages of COU is his ability to endow the characters with voices. Instead of simply telling the reader a story, he forces him to do this his heroes. This gives the narrative a special depth. And the reader has no other choice but to look from different points of view. Sunday Telegraph

After Martin Emis passed a little, Jonathan Cowe became the funniest serious novelist in this country. The Independent