What do you think?
Rate this book
The End of Nightwork
Pol suffers from a very rare hormonal disorder that ages him erratically; when he was thirteen, his body aged ten years overnight, and now in his early thirties, he still has the outward appearance of a twenty-three-year-old. But with his condition dormant, Pol and his wife Caroline manage to live an ordinary life in Kilburn. They’re happy enough, even if having a young child has put something of a strain on their marriage. That and Pol’s obsessive interest in the writings of an obscure seventeenth-century Puritan prophet, Bartholomew Playfere, and his premonitions of ecological disaster and the end of the world.
But while Pol is failing to complete his research on Playfere, he encounters a radical new movement that argues that all economic and political events are part of an aeon-long struggle between the old and the young – that the ‘hoarist’ habit of violence, their need to conquer, has also affected how they treat the planet. The leader of this popular movement predicts an imminent inter-generational conflict – father against son, mother against daughter – that echoes Playfere’s own prophecies.
Against this increasingly fraught backdrop, Pol’s dormant condition threatens to resurface – putting both the safety and happiness of his family at risk.
But while Pol is failing to complete his research on Playfere, he encounters a radical new movement that argues that all economic and political events are part of an aeon-long struggle between the old and the young – that the ‘hoarist’ habit of violence, their need to conquer, has also affected how they treat the planet. The leader of this popular movement predicts an imminent inter-generational conflict – father against son, mother against daughter – that echoes Playfere’s own prophecies.
Against this increasingly fraught backdrop, Pol’s dormant condition threatens to resurface – putting both the safety and happiness of his family at risk.
288 pages, Hardcover
First published January 5, 2023
15 people are currently reading
641 people want to read
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 30 of 36 reviews
July 22, 2023
“’Think of this as like tectonic plates,' another doctor said. "When tectonic plates move properly they just gently glide along nice and easy. This is what life is like for you and me: we gradually age, very gradually, over a very long period of time. With tectonic plates, sometimes something blocks the tectonic plates. Then there is a lot of friction building up, building up, building up. When finally the tectonic plates move, it is not with a smooth, gradual movement. It is with a quick, explosive type of movement. And then what happens? An earthquake happens. This is what happened to the somatotropin in Pol's body. It is supposed to flow easily and consistently. But something was blocking it. When this blockage couldn't resist the flow of somatotropin any more, there was a huge torrent of somatotropin flowing through Pol's system. The amount of somatotropin that you expect to be released in a decade was released in only a few hours. Earthquake.”
This book featured in the 2023 version of the influential annual Observer Best Debut Novelist feature (past years have included Natasha Brown, Caleb Azumah Nelson, Douglas Stuart, Sally Rooney, Rebecca Watson, Yara Rodrigues Fowler, JR Thorp Bonnie Garmus, Gail Honeyman among many others).
And despite it being published into 5 days into the New Year I have some confidence in predicting that this will be one of the quirkiest, most intelligent and idea-filled literary fiction (and definitely debut novels) published in 2023.
Having said that I would not necessarily say that it will be one of the best as I felt that the myriad of adjacent-ish ideas in it failed to completely coalesce by the end in the way that much of the novel seemed to promise.
The first party narrator of the book Pol(onius) was suspected up to the age of thirteen as suffering from delayed development/late onset puberty from He Hakari Neke syndrome whereby he suffered at age 13 a heterochronous shock – undergoing physical development that would normally take place between say 12 and 22 in just a few days. His development then largely stalls at that age but with the threat of a future event in say 15-20 years’ time which would age him by another 30-40 years over a few days – an event which we perceive has already occurred by the time the book is written.
Pol, as well as or perhaps due to his condition, has other quirks – notably an almost lifelong obsession with an apocalyptical Civil War Puritan preacher – Bartholomew Playfere author of the eponymous pamphlet, who convinced of an imminent catastrophic flood lead a group of followers to an island off the West Coast of Ireland (which due to a seeming lack of etymological sophistication he is convinced is the location of the biblical Armageddon).
And while having a reputation among his friends and family as an autodidact, Pol seems something of a drifter in life – never really following through on his research to turn it into something meaningful and working casually as a gardener at a London school where his wife Caroline teaches.
At some point he gets a job as a tutor for the adopted daughter of two friends – a disabled artist and social activist Cynthia who becomes involved in the Kourist movement which has grown on Reditt
Over the course of the past year, a pseudonymous theorist calling himself Adonis Dolofonithikos has been posting a series of essays on a subreddit. The essays postulate a new kind of historical materialism. All economic and political and social and cultural events, Dolofonithikos writes, are part of an aeon-long struggle between the old and the young. In order to maintain their power in society, the old have pillaged and raped the young, both literally and figuratively. Dolofonithikos calls it the ‘historical overthrow of the youth right’. Eventually, though, this conflict will reach a head. On the subreddit all the people believe that the stage is being set for a final battle, a revolutionary denouement. When the interests of the youth are too much in conflict with the interests of the old, Dolofonithikos writes, then revolution becomes inevitable.
As that movement becomes increasingly militant and opposed to the “Hoarist” establishment (“as in ‘hoary’: like the old-fashioned world for geriatric. They think that it is a clever homonym, plus it also works because Hoarist rhymes with Kourist”) – Pol feels his condition (not least perhaps the sudden age explosion that he suffered) makes him ideally poised to write for and about the Kourists although again he does not really follow through and a second heterochronous shock – after which the book is written – leaves him heading for Playfere’s Irish Ireland (where both Pol and his parents took their honeymoon).
That in itself would be more than enough plot, but on top of this are a string of well sketched generational relationships – between Pol and his estranged father, ageing Mother and carer Sister, between Caroline and her strong willed parents and between Pol/Caroline and their son Jesse (to whom the book is addressed) as well as a lively relationship between Pol and Caroline – family dynamics written in a lively and entertaining style with sharp dialogue which could I think easily suffice for an interesting TV sitcom series.
Pol’s condition of course links to the Kourist/Hoarist conflict and Playfere’s prophecies to the risks of climate change – all interwoven with myriad generational conflicts, …….. but as I implied with my opening remarks the threads don’t form quite the completed tapestry I had hoped for.
Nevertheless, an intriguing debut and one which captures something of the confused times in which we live (the lack of resolution and satisfactory narrative resolution being itself symbolic) while implicitly observing that societal chaos, generational conflict and predictions of imminent catastrophe are far from new.
I think anyone reading it will find themselves both entertained and intrigued, and I very much look forward to what the author does next.
January 12, 2023
When speaking with the Augury,’ McCaul wrote, ‘I have the curious sensation that I am speaking to Ebenezer Scrooge. Her childhood and her adulthood are not lifetimes. They are, rather, prophetic episodes, episodes in a sad and sadly limited sequence.’
I remember reading that passage when I was twenty-eight: fifteen years after my first heterochronous shock, six years before my second, three weeks after you were born. But it didn’t make me think of me straight away. It made me think of my father, your grandfather. And then it made me think of you. And then it made me think of me.
Aidan Cottrell-Boyce's The End of Nightwork features on the Guardian/Observer's usually highly prescient 10 best new novelists list for 2023. Son of author Frank Cottrell Boyce, he explained to the Guardian that the novel grew out of the “30,000 words of madness” he sent an agent who saw his short fiction in the avant garde quarterly the White Review and asked what else he was writing after they played football together.
The resulting book is a fascinating read, bursting with ideas, but not (unlike many similar debut novels) so stuffed with them that it overstays its welcome, coming in shy of 300 pages. If there is a flaw, and it's a significant one, it's that while there are common threads among the different elements and ideas, many of which would have supported a novel on their own, the ending of the novel rather peters out with the reader frustrated in their expectation that the story might draw them altogether. That said, rather like a novel that doesn't neatly resolve its storylines (which I typically applaud), this is a novel of ideas that leaves the reader to draw the connections.
As an example, the novel is set around the time of the 2010 election, when having foolishly dumped their best ever leader, Labour lost power to the Coalition, one whose initially impressive liberalism ultimately paved the path to Brexit as well as, crucially for the novel, and via tuition fees (actually recommended by a Labour-created commission) the significant age gradient that has arisen in UK voting intention. In the novel's timeline an even more acute version of this political age divide gives rise to the radical Kourist movement (more below).
The novel is told by Pol (short for Polonius) son of an Anglophilic academic German father and an Irish mother, and essentially addressed (likely as a final will-and-testament) to his young son.
The novel's different, at times disparate, elements include:
- Pol's condition of "He Hakari Nēke syndrome";
This causes the sufferer to barely age at all for periods and then suffer periodic and unpredictable "heterochronous shocks", so that Pol is very small for his age until his early teens and then suddenly undergoes puberty, biologically ageing to a 22 year-old, overnight.
- the apocalyptical writings of the 17th century prophet Bartholomew Playfere;
In 1646, when he was my age, Bartholomew Playfere was mustered as a musketeer in the Parliamentary forces. In 1650 he had a religious experience which left him sprawling on his back in the back field of the farm that belonged to his father-in-law. The sky turned black. Absolute darkness filled the air, so that he could no longer tell if his eyes were open or closed. In 1653 he published The End of Nightwork and the Sundering of the Curtain in Twayn, in which he described the precise location of the battle of Armageddon as taking place not in the Holy Land but in the islands off the coast of Connemara. As the seas rose, Playfere believed, all of the nations of the world would converge on these islands, would duke it out in an epic battle, the winners of which would be revealed by providence to be the long-lost tribes of Israel, borne on eagles’ wings to a place of greater safety to enjoy the diversions of the walled pleasure gardens of the new Jerusalem, the walls of which would be built against the wall-battering western winds.
‘And those that said to me why art thou come into Towne to make divisions were answered not by mine tongue but by the Lord who promiseth such fire as will cuppell His creation. Since the last Days foretold and forewarn’d of by our Saviour, are at hand, wherein iniquity abounds, and the love of many waxes cold; hence Father against Son, and Son against Father, betraying one another, and hating one another; hence the Judgments of Famine and Pestilence; Nation rising up against Nation. So that the whole World seems to be on Fire before its time and the birds of the air will gather in the darkling sky and will tear out the eyes of the slaves of Sathan.’
- the Kourist movement (the novel's highlight for me);
Over the course of the past year, a pseudonymous theorist calling himself Adonis Dolofonithikos has been posting a series of essays on a subreddit. The essays postulate a new kind of historical materialism. All economic and political and social and cultural events, Dolofonithikos writes, are part of an aeon-long struggle between the old and the young. In order to maintain their power in society, the old have pillaged and raped the young, both literally and figuratively. Dolofonithikos calls it the ‘historical overthrow of the youth right’. Eventually, though, this conflict will reach a head. On the subreddit all the people believe that the stage is being set for a final battle, a revolutionary denouement.
It's an odd conspiracy theory that seems to owe more to Pizzagate and Q-Anon and, in the UK, the fantasies of Carl Beech and the ill-fated Operation Midland, than, say, to Climate XR, but with obvious links to Pol's own condition, mentally still young but, by the novel's end, elderly, and labelled by Kourist's as a 'Hoarist'.
- a well-observed drama of family dynamics, the narrator's pithily observant sister Caoimhe a particular highlight;
- a focus on caring, particularly for someone who ages faster than their partner, and the inter-generation burdens of care;
It was interesting, and perhaps a little unfairly detrimental on The End of Nightwork to read this after the powerful Ti amo told by a narrator caring for her husband dying of cancer, which covers this topic much more powerfully.
- The concept of 'Nightwork' itself, which is perhaps the most underdeveloped area;
The title comes from "The End of Nightwork and the Sundering of the Curtain in Twayn", Playfere's most famous work, but there are other references, some implicit (looking after a child overnight) and other's more explicit - an Irish relative who comes over to do nightwork on the Jubilee Line; "nightwork" used rather oddly as putting in effort to keep a family together; and passages like this:
Ted is saying that they had come out the previous night to watch the parade. Some kind of Kurdish affair. How the streets were littered with flyers and bottles and plastic bags after the parade had passed. And how they got up in the morning pretty early to find the whole place spotless.
‘I do think that nightwork is like magic, isn’t it,’ Ellen is saying. ‘The same quality of experience. Like little magic elves making you think that the whole thing was just a dream.’
‘Nightwork is like set dressing,’ Caroline says. ‘Paying these people to create a stage set for this fricken opera that we call “capitalism” or “civilization” or whatever.’
Fascinating and recommended and a book I hope to see featuring on awards.
I remember reading that passage when I was twenty-eight: fifteen years after my first heterochronous shock, six years before my second, three weeks after you were born. But it didn’t make me think of me straight away. It made me think of my father, your grandfather. And then it made me think of you. And then it made me think of me.
Aidan Cottrell-Boyce's The End of Nightwork features on the Guardian/Observer's usually highly prescient 10 best new novelists list for 2023. Son of author Frank Cottrell Boyce, he explained to the Guardian that the novel grew out of the “30,000 words of madness” he sent an agent who saw his short fiction in the avant garde quarterly the White Review and asked what else he was writing after they played football together.
The resulting book is a fascinating read, bursting with ideas, but not (unlike many similar debut novels) so stuffed with them that it overstays its welcome, coming in shy of 300 pages. If there is a flaw, and it's a significant one, it's that while there are common threads among the different elements and ideas, many of which would have supported a novel on their own, the ending of the novel rather peters out with the reader frustrated in their expectation that the story might draw them altogether. That said, rather like a novel that doesn't neatly resolve its storylines (which I typically applaud), this is a novel of ideas that leaves the reader to draw the connections.
As an example, the novel is set around the time of the 2010 election, when having foolishly dumped their best ever leader, Labour lost power to the Coalition, one whose initially impressive liberalism ultimately paved the path to Brexit as well as, crucially for the novel, and via tuition fees (actually recommended by a Labour-created commission) the significant age gradient that has arisen in UK voting intention. In the novel's timeline an even more acute version of this political age divide gives rise to the radical Kourist movement (more below).
The novel is told by Pol (short for Polonius) son of an Anglophilic academic German father and an Irish mother, and essentially addressed (likely as a final will-and-testament) to his young son.
The novel's different, at times disparate, elements include:
- Pol's condition of "He Hakari Nēke syndrome";
This causes the sufferer to barely age at all for periods and then suffer periodic and unpredictable "heterochronous shocks", so that Pol is very small for his age until his early teens and then suddenly undergoes puberty, biologically ageing to a 22 year-old, overnight.
- the apocalyptical writings of the 17th century prophet Bartholomew Playfere;
In 1646, when he was my age, Bartholomew Playfere was mustered as a musketeer in the Parliamentary forces. In 1650 he had a religious experience which left him sprawling on his back in the back field of the farm that belonged to his father-in-law. The sky turned black. Absolute darkness filled the air, so that he could no longer tell if his eyes were open or closed. In 1653 he published The End of Nightwork and the Sundering of the Curtain in Twayn, in which he described the precise location of the battle of Armageddon as taking place not in the Holy Land but in the islands off the coast of Connemara. As the seas rose, Playfere believed, all of the nations of the world would converge on these islands, would duke it out in an epic battle, the winners of which would be revealed by providence to be the long-lost tribes of Israel, borne on eagles’ wings to a place of greater safety to enjoy the diversions of the walled pleasure gardens of the new Jerusalem, the walls of which would be built against the wall-battering western winds.
‘And those that said to me why art thou come into Towne to make divisions were answered not by mine tongue but by the Lord who promiseth such fire as will cuppell His creation. Since the last Days foretold and forewarn’d of by our Saviour, are at hand, wherein iniquity abounds, and the love of many waxes cold; hence Father against Son, and Son against Father, betraying one another, and hating one another; hence the Judgments of Famine and Pestilence; Nation rising up against Nation. So that the whole World seems to be on Fire before its time and the birds of the air will gather in the darkling sky and will tear out the eyes of the slaves of Sathan.’
- the Kourist movement (the novel's highlight for me);
Over the course of the past year, a pseudonymous theorist calling himself Adonis Dolofonithikos has been posting a series of essays on a subreddit. The essays postulate a new kind of historical materialism. All economic and political and social and cultural events, Dolofonithikos writes, are part of an aeon-long struggle between the old and the young. In order to maintain their power in society, the old have pillaged and raped the young, both literally and figuratively. Dolofonithikos calls it the ‘historical overthrow of the youth right’. Eventually, though, this conflict will reach a head. On the subreddit all the people believe that the stage is being set for a final battle, a revolutionary denouement.
It's an odd conspiracy theory that seems to owe more to Pizzagate and Q-Anon and, in the UK, the fantasies of Carl Beech and the ill-fated Operation Midland, than, say, to Climate XR, but with obvious links to Pol's own condition, mentally still young but, by the novel's end, elderly, and labelled by Kourist's as a 'Hoarist'.
- a well-observed drama of family dynamics, the narrator's pithily observant sister Caoimhe a particular highlight;
- a focus on caring, particularly for someone who ages faster than their partner, and the inter-generation burdens of care;
It was interesting, and perhaps a little unfairly detrimental on The End of Nightwork to read this after the powerful Ti amo told by a narrator caring for her husband dying of cancer, which covers this topic much more powerfully.
- The concept of 'Nightwork' itself, which is perhaps the most underdeveloped area;
The title comes from "The End of Nightwork and the Sundering of the Curtain in Twayn", Playfere's most famous work, but there are other references, some implicit (looking after a child overnight) and other's more explicit - an Irish relative who comes over to do nightwork on the Jubilee Line; "nightwork" used rather oddly as putting in effort to keep a family together; and passages like this:
Ted is saying that they had come out the previous night to watch the parade. Some kind of Kurdish affair. How the streets were littered with flyers and bottles and plastic bags after the parade had passed. And how they got up in the morning pretty early to find the whole place spotless.
‘I do think that nightwork is like magic, isn’t it,’ Ellen is saying. ‘The same quality of experience. Like little magic elves making you think that the whole thing was just a dream.’
‘Nightwork is like set dressing,’ Caroline says. ‘Paying these people to create a stage set for this fricken opera that we call “capitalism” or “civilization” or whatever.’
Fascinating and recommended and a book I hope to see featuring on awards.
January 13, 2023
I have to confess I came to this book almost by accident. I was scrolling through NetGalley whilst requesting a couple of other books and the description of this one caught my attention. As I read the blurb, it sounded like a book full of ideas and life. Then I remembered that I had read something by Cottrell-Boyce in a recent edition of Granta magazine and, on checking, I realised that what I had read was the first chapter of this book. That lead, after reading the book, to a happy 15 minutes comparing the two versions and spotting a few minor edits (all for the better, I think).
And the “ideas and life” thing is true. The story of Pol (Polonius) and his family is indeed told in a way that is refreshing to read: well observed, clever dialogue (the girls in this book get some great lines!) and some great descriptive writing. There are also all the ideas about Bartholomew Playfere, the Kourists. The Playfere prophecies lead onto stuff about potential climate change, rising sea levels etc.. The Kourists, when you read about them (I’ll leave that for you to do rather than go into detail) set up an environment in which they and Pol’s condition (explained in the blurb) can bounce ideas around.
There’s a lot going on. But somehow, for me, it never felt like it was going somewhere. There was so much playing with ideas that it never pulled together. Maybe that was the point, but it made for a frustrating reading experience for me because I was enjoying the actual reading of the book but found myself wanting more from the complete thing. But then, this is a debut novel and, as a debut novel, it’s very clever and full of interesting writing and ideas. I’m conflicted because reading the book was an enjoyable experience but I can’t help feeling at the end that the whole is less than the sum of its parts.
But I’d certainly read the next book Cottrell-Boyce puts out. So there’s that.
This is a 3.5 star book for me, but I have to go one way or the other for the rating I assign. I could see myself coming back and changing the rating more than once as I try to settle on how I actually feel about the book.
My thanks to the publisher for an ARC via NetGalley.
And the “ideas and life” thing is true. The story of Pol (Polonius) and his family is indeed told in a way that is refreshing to read: well observed, clever dialogue (the girls in this book get some great lines!) and some great descriptive writing. There are also all the ideas about Bartholomew Playfere, the Kourists. The Playfere prophecies lead onto stuff about potential climate change, rising sea levels etc.. The Kourists, when you read about them (I’ll leave that for you to do rather than go into detail) set up an environment in which they and Pol’s condition (explained in the blurb) can bounce ideas around.
There’s a lot going on. But somehow, for me, it never felt like it was going somewhere. There was so much playing with ideas that it never pulled together. Maybe that was the point, but it made for a frustrating reading experience for me because I was enjoying the actual reading of the book but found myself wanting more from the complete thing. But then, this is a debut novel and, as a debut novel, it’s very clever and full of interesting writing and ideas. I’m conflicted because reading the book was an enjoyable experience but I can’t help feeling at the end that the whole is less than the sum of its parts.
But I’d certainly read the next book Cottrell-Boyce puts out. So there’s that.
This is a 3.5 star book for me, but I have to go one way or the other for the rating I assign. I could see myself coming back and changing the rating more than once as I try to settle on how I actually feel about the book.
My thanks to the publisher for an ARC via NetGalley.
December 16, 2022
Interesting novel about a rare aging illness, marriage, age, a 17th century prophet, and conspiracy theorists. It was more modern that I had expected from the description and the cover and there were some great ideas, but I don’t think I got all of it. The first half confused me a bit; the dialogue didn’t always sound logical to me, which made it hard to really understand the characters and their motives. In the end, this was interesting and sad.
Thank you Granta and Netgalley for the ARC.
Thank you Granta and Netgalley for the ARC.
December 14, 2022
Pol has a rare condition which means his body ages in sudden bursts, rather than gradually. At thirteen he aged ten years overnight, and now he is in his thirties but looks a decade younger.
The End of Nightwork takes the form of a memoir written by Pol for his young son, Jesse. Pol describes the difficult marriage between his German father and Irish mother and his obsession with 17th-century apocalyptic prophet Bartholomew Playfere. After Pol discovers Playfere through a lesson at school and a Ladybird book, he learns that his parents honeymooned on the same island in Connemara where Playfere led his people to wait for Armageddon (Playfere had identified it as the location due to a misunderstanding).
Pol and his wife, Caroline, also travel there for their honeymoon before settling to married life. Pol’s medical condition (and frankly, his temperament) mean he doesn’t have a career so his work on Playfere becomes his identity, allowing him to claim status, intellect and purpose to their friends. He works as a tutor to Cynthia, a young disabled artist and activist, and she inspires his increasing fascination with a present-day movement, the Kourists, whose manifesto of intergenerational conflict is refined and discussed on Reddit.
Meanwhile, the everyday conflicts and compromises he and Caroline experience are heightened by his condition and the response of the people around them to a man who is always either older or younger than he appears. Meanwhile, Jesse begins acting out at school and Pol’s mother’s dementia and his own increasingly vivid dreams lead him to re-examine the knotty dynamics of his family.
The End of Nightwork’s apparently discursive style, moving from the mundane to the fantastical with dry humour and piercing observation, masks its clever interweaving of ideas: on how our physical bodies both define and belie who we are, the significance of age in political and social life, the power of cults to mobilise and persuade, how unreliable fragments of memory shape our identity as individuals, families and cultures.
The End of Nightwork is a novel to savour, poignant and quietly devastating. I kept turning it over in my mind after I had finished reading it, and the more I thought about it, the more I saw.
*
I received a copy of The End of Nightwork from the publisher via Netgalley.
The End of Nightwork takes the form of a memoir written by Pol for his young son, Jesse. Pol describes the difficult marriage between his German father and Irish mother and his obsession with 17th-century apocalyptic prophet Bartholomew Playfere. After Pol discovers Playfere through a lesson at school and a Ladybird book, he learns that his parents honeymooned on the same island in Connemara where Playfere led his people to wait for Armageddon (Playfere had identified it as the location due to a misunderstanding).
Pol and his wife, Caroline, also travel there for their honeymoon before settling to married life. Pol’s medical condition (and frankly, his temperament) mean he doesn’t have a career so his work on Playfere becomes his identity, allowing him to claim status, intellect and purpose to their friends. He works as a tutor to Cynthia, a young disabled artist and activist, and she inspires his increasing fascination with a present-day movement, the Kourists, whose manifesto of intergenerational conflict is refined and discussed on Reddit.
Meanwhile, the everyday conflicts and compromises he and Caroline experience are heightened by his condition and the response of the people around them to a man who is always either older or younger than he appears. Meanwhile, Jesse begins acting out at school and Pol’s mother’s dementia and his own increasingly vivid dreams lead him to re-examine the knotty dynamics of his family.
The End of Nightwork’s apparently discursive style, moving from the mundane to the fantastical with dry humour and piercing observation, masks its clever interweaving of ideas: on how our physical bodies both define and belie who we are, the significance of age in political and social life, the power of cults to mobilise and persuade, how unreliable fragments of memory shape our identity as individuals, families and cultures.
The End of Nightwork is a novel to savour, poignant and quietly devastating. I kept turning it over in my mind after I had finished reading it, and the more I thought about it, the more I saw.
*
I received a copy of The End of Nightwork from the publisher via Netgalley.
February 26, 2023
Pol has a genetic disorder that means that his physical body and his actual age do not always match up. The surges in growth come as attacks and nobody really understands what triggers them or how to stop them. Pols life fits and starts against the backdrop of his obsession with Puritan prophet, Bartholomew Playfere who wrote obscure works prophesying the end of the world.
Pol attempts to live an ordinary life with his wife and son but against the backdrop of environmental collapse, the rise of a youth cult who have all the hallmarks of Playfere's prophecies about the young turning on their parents and his increasingly fractured family life, it's hard to keep a sense of what's real.
This is eerie, haunting and strange. I'm still not entirely sure that I understood it, but I did love it anyway.
Pol attempts to live an ordinary life with his wife and son but against the backdrop of environmental collapse, the rise of a youth cult who have all the hallmarks of Playfere's prophecies about the young turning on their parents and his increasingly fractured family life, it's hard to keep a sense of what's real.
This is eerie, haunting and strange. I'm still not entirely sure that I understood it, but I did love it anyway.
May 16, 2023
Interessant concept maar het gaat niet echt ergens heen. De laatste hoofdstukken zijn nogal random ineens. Had meer mee kunnen gebeuren. Wel een erg coole kaft en grappige passages dus ik heb het wel graag gelezen.
November 4, 2022
The End of Nightwork is a novel about a man with a rare disorder that causes him to age suddenly and his obsession with a seventeenth-century prophet who predicted the ecological collapse of the world. Pol has a condition which means he stays outwardly the same age until suddenly he can age many years at once. He's in his thirties but appears to be in his early twenties, and lives with his wife and small child in London, where he mostly thinks about Bartholomew Playfere, a prophet Pol is trying to write a book about. When Pol learns about a new youth movement about the tension between the young and the old, he's intrigued, but any stress in his life could cause his condition to trigger.
This is a distinctive novel, combining chronic illness, family, philosophical thought, and what gives people meaning. The story itself, narrated by Pol to his child, focuses on Pol's life and the tensions in his marriage due to his condition and general relation to the world, in terms of thought and action. There's a theme running underneath about Pol's relation to knowledge-making as someone who is trying to write non-fiction without a university degree and who is seen as someone who knows everything whilst being self-taught. There's also a notable generational element to the book, not only in the obvious youth movement, but also relationships between parents and children and the perceptions of Pol when he appears to be different ages to what he really is.
There's a lot to think about with this book, some of which I think went over my head and other of which was interesting. From the cover I definitely expected more of the seventeenth-century prophet stuff, but what you do get from The End of Nightwork is something more modern-focused, thinking about recent history and interpersonal relationships and the ways in which age in important in current society.
This is a distinctive novel, combining chronic illness, family, philosophical thought, and what gives people meaning. The story itself, narrated by Pol to his child, focuses on Pol's life and the tensions in his marriage due to his condition and general relation to the world, in terms of thought and action. There's a theme running underneath about Pol's relation to knowledge-making as someone who is trying to write non-fiction without a university degree and who is seen as someone who knows everything whilst being self-taught. There's also a notable generational element to the book, not only in the obvious youth movement, but also relationships between parents and children and the perceptions of Pol when he appears to be different ages to what he really is.
There's a lot to think about with this book, some of which I think went over my head and other of which was interesting. From the cover I definitely expected more of the seventeenth-century prophet stuff, but what you do get from The End of Nightwork is something more modern-focused, thinking about recent history and interpersonal relationships and the ways in which age in important in current society.
November 14, 2022
There are a lot of fascinating concepts in this novel.
The main character aging differently than most people? A fantasy, parallel history with interesting prophets and mythology?
I just wish there was more of this, and less "dropped", random details that are supposed to help brush a picture of who the characters are, but end up like reference dropping. For example, all the music bands Caroline loves didn't help me understand her as a person. So I wish that what felt expandable in the story had been replaced by more details about mythology, philosophy, and more existential ponderings diving into the main character's condition.
A lot of themes were started and left, at least to me, unresolved, rather than "subtle".
I felt the ending was too abrupt as well.
That said, I did read the book rather quickly and seldom felt bored, so overall it was an enjoyable read with a lot of potential.
I want to thank Granta Publications and NetGalley for providing me with a free copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.
The main character aging differently than most people? A fantasy, parallel history with interesting prophets and mythology?
I just wish there was more of this, and less "dropped", random details that are supposed to help brush a picture of who the characters are, but end up like reference dropping. For example, all the music bands Caroline loves didn't help me understand her as a person. So I wish that what felt expandable in the story had been replaced by more details about mythology, philosophy, and more existential ponderings diving into the main character's condition.
A lot of themes were started and left, at least to me, unresolved, rather than "subtle".
I felt the ending was too abrupt as well.
That said, I did read the book rather quickly and seldom felt bored, so overall it was an enjoyable read with a lot of potential.
I want to thank Granta Publications and NetGalley for providing me with a free copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.
March 3, 2023
A little disappointing for me. I will admit that the cover for this one drew me in, and the plot sounded deeply intriguing, for me though the execution didn't live up to my expectations. I found it disjointed and a little confused. I never really got to know the characters and found this a little frustrating. It may be one that I revisit in the future.
June 17, 2023
3.5 stars
i liked this book. it’s the kind where not a lot really happens, but i still enjoyed reading it, it was very well written, smart and well observed with lots of little dry humorous quipps here and there. there were some interesting abstract concepts explored, e.g the ideas of “kourists” and “heterochronus shock” were quite interesting. i didn’t really like the whole “obsessed with Bartholomew Playfere” aspect and honestly felt like the book wouldn’t be missing much without it.
Clearly Aidan Cottrell-Boyce is a fantastic writer with fresh ideas and I will definitely look for any of his future work
i liked this book. it’s the kind where not a lot really happens, but i still enjoyed reading it, it was very well written, smart and well observed with lots of little dry humorous quipps here and there. there were some interesting abstract concepts explored, e.g the ideas of “kourists” and “heterochronus shock” were quite interesting. i didn’t really like the whole “obsessed with Bartholomew Playfere” aspect and honestly felt like the book wouldn’t be missing much without it.
Clearly Aidan Cottrell-Boyce is a fantastic writer with fresh ideas and I will definitely look for any of his future work
October 1, 2023
Bags of potential, but for my money, little of it realised. A man with a rare (indeed, fictional) condition that messes up his physical ageing becomes obsessed with a seventeenth-century prophet of doom named Bartholomew Playfere, and with a growing social justice movement among young people that sees all of history as a generational war between young and old. This might very well be successful for other readers; I found it too fragmented in focus, and once again, as so often in contemporary litfic, the protagonist and his wife appear not to like or even understand each other particularly, which makes their choice to have a small child (putting further strain on their marriage) fairly unsympathetic.
July 22, 2024
3.5! Pol, our main man, is honestly so pathetic it’s enraging but the concept of the book and the writing is so compelling. I also believe it’s very timely especially with the US political circumstances. I need this book to become mainstream
February 17, 2023
Pol is bodily in his twilight years but actually still a young man. He suffers from He Hakari Neke syndrome which results in him not aging for a time, then suffering a heterochronous shock which dramatically ages him overnight. He has two episodes – one at about 13 when he becomes biologically 22 overnight – and a second one in his 20s or 30s which transforms him into an incontinent old man. Consequently he is writing his memoir to his young son.
Pol is an academic, studying the life of the 17th prophet Bartholemew Playfere who wrote The End of Nightwork, in which he explained that Armageddon would take place in the islands off the coast of Connemara – the place where his parents honeymooned and subsequently so did Pol and his wife Caroline. He is side-tracked from his work when he is asked to tutor social activist Cynthia. She introduces him to the Kourist Movement which is essentially a struggle between the old and the young – like Pol – young in an old body. Relating to this tension between youth and old age, he wishes to engage with the movement but externally he is the enemy – an old man.
This book felt like it was in the middle stages of development. We are getting there but it just needs tightening up a bit. The voice needs to be a little more consistent throughout, the themes a little more securely linked to each other, the fact that Pol was writing to his son needed more consideration. There is one scene in which he describes his wife’s sexual behaviour that really disturbed me and left me asking, “Why would you possibly tell your son that about his mother?” I felt at times the book was very literary and academic then at others it was appealing to a wider audience. Overall it left me a little underwhelmed but it was good not to have a formulaic piece of writing and there are lots of themes to discuss in a book club.
Pol is an academic, studying the life of the 17th prophet Bartholemew Playfere who wrote The End of Nightwork, in which he explained that Armageddon would take place in the islands off the coast of Connemara – the place where his parents honeymooned and subsequently so did Pol and his wife Caroline. He is side-tracked from his work when he is asked to tutor social activist Cynthia. She introduces him to the Kourist Movement which is essentially a struggle between the old and the young – like Pol – young in an old body. Relating to this tension between youth and old age, he wishes to engage with the movement but externally he is the enemy – an old man.
This book felt like it was in the middle stages of development. We are getting there but it just needs tightening up a bit. The voice needs to be a little more consistent throughout, the themes a little more securely linked to each other, the fact that Pol was writing to his son needed more consideration. There is one scene in which he describes his wife’s sexual behaviour that really disturbed me and left me asking, “Why would you possibly tell your son that about his mother?” I felt at times the book was very literary and academic then at others it was appealing to a wider audience. Overall it left me a little underwhelmed but it was good not to have a formulaic piece of writing and there are lots of themes to discuss in a book club.
dnf
September 24, 2023I had convinced myself that this was historical fiction when it’s not. Oops. I’m actually way less interested in it as a contemporary story.
There’s a fragmentary style that I wasn’t loving as well, but that doesn’t bother everyone.
There’s a fragmentary style that I wasn’t loving as well, but that doesn’t bother everyone.
October 22, 2025
Det finns för många böcker som börjar med 100 helt oklanderliga sidor som sedan urartar i medelmåttighet. Desto mer jag läser desto starkare blir min övertygelse att det finns väldigt få böcker som förtjänar att vara längre än 200 sidor, nästan alla böcker längre än det skulle bara kunna bli bättre av att kokas ner.
Detta gäller tyvärr också denna boken, som jag hittade av slump och hade ganska höga förväntningar på. Och den levde också upp till dem förväntningarna på de första 100 sidorna.
Bokens första tredjedel blandar ett väldigt lättläst språk med en underlig användning av tempus som gör kronologin i berättelsen väldigt svår att förstå. Man vet alltid var man är när han beskriver det förflutna, men nutiden är aldrig tydlig. Det är inget som irriterar, utan tvärtom något som starkt tillför till en unik stämning som varken är drömlik eller verklighetstrogen utan någonstans därimellan. Som en behaglig feberdröm i klarvaket tillstånd.
Vad som även tillför till detta är att huvudpersonen framstår som en utomjording när man, som läsare, ser honom genom hans inre monolog. Det är tydligt att han dock agerar som en helt vanlig person, för människor runt honom reagerar normalt på det han säger och gör (vilket sällan är beskrivet i detalj, eftersom fokuset ligger på hans inre upplevelse). Jag fick först känslan av att man läser om någon som vet något om världen som ingen annan vet, en gud bland människor. Men medans han åldras framstår han mer och mer som att han bara är någon som är, och alltid varit, djupt alienerad från sin egna mänsklighet. Passar väldigt bra in i temat.
Tyvärr och som sagt blir det en helt annan bok från sida 110. Språket blir tröttare, enklare, sämre. Allt det mysteriska försvinner. Cottrell-Boyce börjar härifrån dessutom använda lite för många referenser till verkliga personer och händelser. I tidigare delar var han väldigt sparsam med detta och använde sig av Vonnegut-style hittepåpersoner. Dessutom refererade han till the Clash, the Stooges och Vengaboys och han borde få guldstjärna för bra smak… När han i del 3 däremot går över till 10 sidor av reddit citat så gav jag nästan upp läsandet.
Från sida 250 så började den vinna mig tillbaka igen. Slutet är jävligt känslosamt och mäktigt och gör upp för mycket av det dåliga i mitten.
(Spoilers) Huvudpersonen refererar till ett ’you’ och man inser inte att detta ’you’ är hans son förrän långt in i boken. Först framstår det som att han skriver till sin son, men i och med slutet måste det vara så att boken utgör dem konversationerna han har (eller önskar att han kunde ha) med hägringen av hans son som han ser i det höga gräset. Väldigt sorgligt.
Många intressanta teman som Cottrell-Boyce doppar fingrarna i i denna boken och den ställer många intressanta existensiella frågor. I motsats till andra rescensioner på denna webbsidan så tycker jag inte det behövs mer än så. Jag önskar bara att den var konsekvent i sin kvalitét.
Detta gäller tyvärr också denna boken, som jag hittade av slump och hade ganska höga förväntningar på. Och den levde också upp till dem förväntningarna på de första 100 sidorna.
Bokens första tredjedel blandar ett väldigt lättläst språk med en underlig användning av tempus som gör kronologin i berättelsen väldigt svår att förstå. Man vet alltid var man är när han beskriver det förflutna, men nutiden är aldrig tydlig. Det är inget som irriterar, utan tvärtom något som starkt tillför till en unik stämning som varken är drömlik eller verklighetstrogen utan någonstans därimellan. Som en behaglig feberdröm i klarvaket tillstånd.
Vad som även tillför till detta är att huvudpersonen framstår som en utomjording när man, som läsare, ser honom genom hans inre monolog. Det är tydligt att han dock agerar som en helt vanlig person, för människor runt honom reagerar normalt på det han säger och gör (vilket sällan är beskrivet i detalj, eftersom fokuset ligger på hans inre upplevelse). Jag fick först känslan av att man läser om någon som vet något om världen som ingen annan vet, en gud bland människor. Men medans han åldras framstår han mer och mer som att han bara är någon som är, och alltid varit, djupt alienerad från sin egna mänsklighet. Passar väldigt bra in i temat.
Tyvärr och som sagt blir det en helt annan bok från sida 110. Språket blir tröttare, enklare, sämre. Allt det mysteriska försvinner. Cottrell-Boyce börjar härifrån dessutom använda lite för många referenser till verkliga personer och händelser. I tidigare delar var han väldigt sparsam med detta och använde sig av Vonnegut-style hittepåpersoner. Dessutom refererade han till the Clash, the Stooges och Vengaboys och han borde få guldstjärna för bra smak… När han i del 3 däremot går över till 10 sidor av reddit citat så gav jag nästan upp läsandet.
Från sida 250 så började den vinna mig tillbaka igen. Slutet är jävligt känslosamt och mäktigt och gör upp för mycket av det dåliga i mitten.
(Spoilers) Huvudpersonen refererar till ett ’you’ och man inser inte att detta ’you’ är hans son förrän långt in i boken. Först framstår det som att han skriver till sin son, men i och med slutet måste det vara så att boken utgör dem konversationerna han har (eller önskar att han kunde ha) med hägringen av hans son som han ser i det höga gräset. Väldigt sorgligt.
Många intressanta teman som Cottrell-Boyce doppar fingrarna i i denna boken och den ställer många intressanta existensiella frågor. I motsats till andra rescensioner på denna webbsidan så tycker jag inte det behövs mer än så. Jag önskar bara att den var konsekvent i sin kvalitét.
April 21, 2023
Interesting, the political and philosophical tropes disappear and reappear a bit randomly but the story of the main character feels very real and emotionally gripping.
March 4, 2023
i really enjoyed this one!! pol suffers from a rare condition where he ages rapidly in quick episodes. people can never tell how old he is and they treat him different accordingly. he also experiences chronic symptoms because of this. alongside his physical storyline, we also see him become invested in prophetic 17th century writings which theorise an ecological disaster. firstly, i'm not sure how intentional it was, but i feel pol really represents the modern chronically ill struggle - although his condition is particularly rare, we see that medical professionals can't understand how to properly treat him and most of his life has revolved around his illness, always anticipating his future episodes (like flare ups in chronic illness). his obsession with playfare is also a really interesting plot device and we see the way this interest of his has an impact on the relationships he has with his family, particularly his wife, along with the difficulties they have with treating his condition. i also thought it was quite clever that he addresses his child as 'you' throughout the novel, which also felt quite prophetic in nature and showed, to me, how he became more removed emotionally from his family over time. i read online that aidan cottrel-boyce was a green party candidate so i'm sure this influenced the novel a lot but this only made me appreciate how the ecological elements were woven into the story. so very enjoyable! thank you granta for the copy!
July 14, 2023
Ik weet niet goed wat ik gelezen heb maar wel dat ik het een fijne leeservaring vond. Het plotse verouderen hoefde voor mij niet, de interesse in de oude profeet en in de nieuwe tegenbeweging ook niet, en wat schiet er dan nog over? De toon. Het personage. De observaties die gratuit lijken en waarvan een aantal dat ook zijn, ook al komen sommige details verderop in de roman terug. Het is heel zelfzeker geschreven, niet met de bedoeling je te dazzelen, toch altijd een gevaar in een eerste roman, het is niet formulaïsch, er is geen enkele ‘wat komt er nu’ truc gebruikt die je dwingt om verder te lezen. Het is eigenzinnig maar op een rustige manier, of verwar ik het hoofdpersonage nu met de stijl? Ik heb het alleen op basis van de cover meegenomen uit de bib en dat is geen waterdicht criterium. Maar is de buzz zoveel beter? Dan zit je plots met The Cost of Living of Nobody is talking about this in je schoot en denkt, echt waar? Dit is het beste wat dit tijdsgewricht te bieden heeft?
January 7, 2025
Okay, het voelt misschien wat streng om een lage score te geven aan een boek dat best meevalt, maar er miste gewoon iets dat me echt kon raken of verbazen. Ik twijfel of het aan het boek zelf ligt, of (meer waarschijnlijk) aan het feit dat ik veel belangrijke details over het hoofd heb gezien.
The End of Nightwork leest vlot en bevat zeker intrigerende aspecten. Toch blijft het gevoel hangen dat dit eerder een verzameling anekdotes en emoties is dan een echt samenhangend deel. Vooral omdat je begint met een verhaal, maar je tegen het einde afvraagt: "Ok, en dus?"
Misschien is dit een boek dat ik over een paar jaar opnieuw moet oppakken. Dat ik met een andere blik of meer ervaring beter kan begrijpen wat dit boek écht wil zeggen.
The End of Nightwork leest vlot en bevat zeker intrigerende aspecten. Toch blijft het gevoel hangen dat dit eerder een verzameling anekdotes en emoties is dan een echt samenhangend deel. Vooral omdat je begint met een verhaal, maar je tegen het einde afvraagt: "Ok, en dus?"
Misschien is dit een boek dat ik over een paar jaar opnieuw moet oppakken. Dat ik met een andere blik of meer ervaring beter kan begrijpen wat dit boek écht wil zeggen.
September 13, 2025
I’ve been needing a page-turner and this proved very addictive. It suffers slightly from having too many concepts and strands, which don’t come to a satisfying dénouement, but I’m such a sucker for made-up history that I kind of didn’t care. You can tell the author has a background in research from the depth and fastidiousness of the fictitious lore. The world felt very real to me. I also felt a connection to his place-writing and found out later that the author had studied at Bristol - I think I picked up on this! A very very promising debut. There is one specific short paragraph which was incredibly sad to me, and the emotion contained in that one tiny section makes me excited to read more fiction from this author.
November 19, 2025
Cottrell-Boyce is a talented writer, filled with big ideas and some sharp figurative descriptions. But, the narrative here feels unfocused. There’s the narrator’s disorder that propels his body’s aging process, a fictional political conflict between the young and the old, an overt literary slant, a slew of familial issues to contend with, some apocalyptic anxiety, and so on. But there’s no clear purpose being communicated. The narrator is writing to his child, but there’s no final communication, no conclusion that wraps it all together nicely. Unless I missed something. But if so, that something is dreadfully minimised. Very much a lack of forest through the trees.
August 8, 2024
There's an almost staccato element to the narration as each chapter is made up of lots of short paragraphs, perhaps echoing Pol's erratic aging and the way he experiences the world? It seems silly to say it was not quite what I expected given I picked it up precisely because it seemed unlike anything I'd read before! It ended up being much more of an internal, almost mundane story focused on Pol's relationships, primarily his marriage, with the different figures and theories being slightly more background to this domestic focus. Definitely an interesting read, but the ending is quite abrupt!
February 21, 2023
It's a surprisingly readable book for the ideas that the author stuffed into the book.
The book takes the form of a memoir that the protagonist eventually gets around to writing to his son. It's intimate, sometimes confusing, and explores a wide variety of ideas - dysfunctional families, political movements, cults. I enjoyed its readability and the exploration of ideas but its meandering pace leaves it wanting.
The book takes the form of a memoir that the protagonist eventually gets around to writing to his son. It's intimate, sometimes confusing, and explores a wide variety of ideas - dysfunctional families, political movements, cults. I enjoyed its readability and the exploration of ideas but its meandering pace leaves it wanting.
April 1, 2023
This is a weird shape-shifter of a novel, often veering between absurdity and a comical mundanity, along with non-fiction elements and much more.
It is hard to pin down what this book is at times, but the core premise of the book, and the de-ageing process, sits alongside some very interesting and weird asides, but was very singular in a fascinating way.
I received an advanced copy of this book from NetGalley and the publisher in exchange for an honest review.
It is hard to pin down what this book is at times, but the core premise of the book, and the de-ageing process, sits alongside some very interesting and weird asides, but was very singular in a fascinating way.
I received an advanced copy of this book from NetGalley and the publisher in exchange for an honest review.
Read
April 21, 2023Time is tangled into itself! The past and the present are a Celtic knot. Pol now and Pol then, the Pol we can hear who we have yet to meet. Apocalyptic prophets, youth in revolt, Christmas trees, life, death. Complicated marriages and more complicated parents. This is our world a millimetre to the left, rich with familiarity and terrifying.
March 4, 2024
Oof. Got progressively more annoyed by this book.
Lots of ideas that don't quite come together. Protagonist very passive, managed around by strong women who get all the best lines. And yet it *still* fails to pass the Bechdel test.
Similar vibes to Hari Kunzru's The Red Pill, and Steve Hall's Maxwell's Demon.
Lots of ideas that don't quite come together. Protagonist very passive, managed around by strong women who get all the best lines. And yet it *still* fails to pass the Bechdel test.
Similar vibes to Hari Kunzru's The Red Pill, and Steve Hall's Maxwell's Demon.
January 13, 2023
This is a great story: unusual, weird, gripping and riveting. I was enthralled by the style of writing, the plot and the great characters.
Excellent reading experience, highly recommended.
Many thanks to the publisher for this arc, all opinions are mine
Excellent reading experience, highly recommended.
Many thanks to the publisher for this arc, all opinions are mine
April 14, 2023
Really enjoyed reading it - the ideas in it and the dialogue and the characters all make for a great book - but something, I’m not sure what, just felt like it was missing?
Displaying 1 - 30 of 36 reviews