How I Became a Famous Novelist

What Pete Tarslaw wants is simple enough:

• Fame. Realistic amount. Enough to open new avenues of sexual opportunity. Personal assistant to read mail, grocery shop, etc.
• Financial comfort. Never have a job again. Retire. Spend rest of life lying around, pursuing hobbies (boating? skeet shooting?)
• Humiliate ex-girlfriend at her wedding.

Sick of life as he knows it, Tarslaw sets out to write a bestselling novel, armed with a formula for success...
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What Pete Tarslaw wants is simple enough:

• Fame. Realistic amount. Enough to open new avenues of sexual opportunity. Personal assistant to read mail, grocery shop, etc.
• Financial comfort. Never have a job again. Retire. Spend rest of life lying around, pursuing hobbies (boating? skeet shooting?)
• Humiliate ex-girlfriend at her wedding.

Sick of life as he knows it, Tarslaw sets out to write a bestselling novel, armed with a formula for success cobbled together from the best-seller list. Once the sales ranking for The Tornado Ashes Club starts its meteoric rise, his inevitable decline looms - and his fall from grace will be nothing short of spectacular.

How I Became a Famous Novelist is the hilarious tale of how Pete Tarslaw's 'pile of garbage' became the most talked about, read, admired and reviled novel in America. It will change everything you think you know - about literature, appearance, truth, beauty, and those people out there who still care about books.

Winner, 2010 Thurber Prize for American Humor

'A deeply, often painfully funny book ... [which] should be read by anyone with a passing interest in the state of modern literature.' --The Independent

'I may have read a funnier book in the last 20 years, but at this moment I'm hard-pressed to name it.' --Washington Post

'A consistently hilarious and unrelentingly brilliant gem of a novel.' --Courier Mail

'Sharp and consistently funny.' --Sunday Territorian

'Laugh-out-loud funny.' --Sunday Herald Sun

'Highly entertaining.' --Advertiser

'This guy is f---ing brilliant' --The Age

'Funny as hell' --The Australian