The cry of the sloth - Sam Savage

Surviving on a diet of fried Spam and vodka, Andrew Whittaker is the editor of a small and slightly dingy literary magazine - 'Soap: A Journal of the Arts'. Through this journal, he hopes to fan the flames of literary excellence, publishing such debuts as 'The Toilets of Annapurna' and the intriguing mirror poetry of Miriam Wildercamp. But life is not simple. His tenants are tiring of their blocked drains and killer-mice, his ex-wife wants money, and he is pursued by a frustrated Canadian. Haven fallen out with the local arts community he decides to set up a literary festival in order to save his failing journal - but will this be Andrew Whittaker's moment of glory or his Waterloo?

THE CRY OF THE SLOTH is the brilliantly funny yet touching portrait of one of life's underdogs, a dreamer bewildered by the world and his place in it.

A native of South Carolina now living in Madison, WIsconsin, Sam Savage received his bachelor and doctoral degrees in Philosophy from Yale University where he taught briefly. He has worked as a bicycle mechanic, carpenter, commercial fisherman and letterpress printer. This is his first novel.

The Cry of the Sloth is the funniest anatomy of literary mediocrity since Max Beerbohm's Enoch Soames
THE TIMES - John Sutherland

most of the novel consists of Whittakers hilarious rejection letters to wannabe authors.. Savage works page after page of delightful variations on this theme
THE GUARDIAN - Ian Sansom

A funny and pathetic sequence of letters.. written over the course of several months
TIMES LITERARY SUPPLEMENT - Michael Caines