Tombola

Rorie Smith

Average Rating 8/10 (1 Review)

When 15,000 children are starving to death every day is it legitimate to do nothing? When a businessman becomes a tyrant with no redeeming features is it justifiable to kill him? No? Not even if he threatens to demolish your football club to build a new print works for his newspaper?

These are questions Arthur Polianski, photocopier salesman, must face up to after receiving 'bad news' from his doctor.

Spurred into action, Arthur investigates Billy Petersen's background and finds that the destruction of Athletic Football Club is only a minor misdemeanor in the catalogue of his crimes. But how to stop him? The solution seems obvious.

Extreme, angry, funny, absurd and ultimately very human, Arthur is a great comic hero, the embodiment of all of us who have been put upon and who have dreamed of fighting back.

Tombola is Rorie Smith’s first novel. He currently lives in Cornwall.

See the Tan Tan Books website for more information on Rorie Smith.

Review by Jessica (060408) Rating (8/10)

Review by Jessica
Rating 8/10
A trip to the doctor confirms what Arthur Polianski, a photocopier salesman, believed. He has a very serious illness and has been given approximately two years left to live. Then more bad news swiftly follows when Arthur learns his football club will be demolished in order to build a new print works.

This certainly does spur Arthur to take the necessary action needed and soon an investigation is underway into the background of Billy Petersen who is the destructor of Athletic Football Club. What will Arthur do to make things right? Time is of the essence.

This is a hugely funny yet totally absurd read full of convincing characters and story line. I thought the way the book was set out in snappy sections was excellent, it made for easy reading if you’d just put the book down for whatever reason.

This is a really good debut novel and I hope more will follow. It is destined to be that rare type of book that people will talk about years from now. Indeed a tale laced with the extreme, the funny, the absurd, the interesting and the comic hero we all grow to love. A timeless classic.
Jessica (6th April 2008)