Jerusalem - Patrick Neate

In the first year of the 20th Century, a young Englishman returns home from the Boer War. Disillusioned with Empire and fearful for the soul of Albion, he sets out on a pilgrimage into the West Country, determined to identify the key elements of the English character that they may be forever preserved.

In the present day, a young London entrepreneur, owner of the 'cultural consultancy' AuthenticityT, defines his contemporaries through their consumer choices with bewildering accuracy, wallows in money and contemplates his growing sense of dissatisfaction.

His father, meanwhile, a junior minister in a failing government, is sent to Africa to deal with the continent's latest tin pot despot. He is as confident of success as he is ambitious of what that success will mean for his career.

Unfailingly relevant, politically astute, moving and funny, Jerusalem is a loving portrait of Englishness as it never was, isn't now and, hopefully, never will be.

Patrick Neate is the author of four previous novels: Musungu Jim and the Great Chief Tuloko, which won a Betty Trask Award, Twelve Bar Blues, which won the 2001 Whitbread Novel of the Year Award, The London Pigeon Wars, and City of Tiny Lights and Jerusalem. He lives in London.

An excellent writer, a marvellous novel. A thrilling read
Daily Telegraph

The most thought-provoking novel of the year. An utterly essential read
Irvine Welsh

Extraordinary, ambitious, bitingly, laugh-out-loud satirical . . . quite simply, a must-read
Daily Mail

Wildly inventive, funny and superbly original
The Times

Funny and exciting, Neate is never less than vivid, whether describing the hideous conditions of an African prison, or a run-down pub in London. Excellent
Daily Telegraph

A corrosive and blistering satire on colonialism and an eloquent, angry and relevant novel that speaks its own truth to power
Sunday Telegraph

A multi-layered, jam-packed and often satirical novel rich in ideas and argument. Neate's most inventive book to date . . . invites comparisons with David Mitchell's genre-busting Cloud Atlas
Guardian

Wonderful, impressive, fascinating. Neate is always an engaging and sharp writer
Independent on Sunday

Witty and acerbic dialogue, an unflagging comic plot, upbeat entertainment
Independent

A very funny take on Englishness, colonialism and the search for authenticity
Financial Times

A curious, ridiculous and insightful exploration of Englishness
Esquire

Clever, moving and wise
Sunday Telegraph Books of the Year - Marina Lewycka

Where Neate excels is in his talent for the incongruously horrible ... there are some excellent jokes along the way
Spectator

His most accomplished novel ... stands at some uber-cool crossroads between pop culture, social theory, racial politics and an old-fashioned belief in the power of storytelling ... it's a tricky thing to keep so many balls spinning but Neate makes it look easy
Metro