Then We Came to the End

Then We Came to the End
First US edition with image of Post-it notes
AuthorJoshua Ferris
LanguageEnglish
GenreNovel
PublisherLittle, Brown and Company
Publication date
March 1, 2007
Publication placeUnited States
Media typePrint (Hardback)
Pages400 pp (HB 1st edition)
ISBN978-0-316-01638-4
OCLC62679893
813/.6 22
LC ClassPS3606.E774 T47 2007

Then We Came to the End is the first novel by Joshua Ferris. It was released by Little, Brown and Company on March 1, 2007. A satire of the American workplace, it is similar in tone to Don DeLillo's Americana, even borrowing DeLillo's first line for its title.

It takes place in a Chicago advertising agency that is experiencing a downturn at the end of the 1990s Internet boom. Ferris employs a first-person-plural narrative.

Critical reaction

The book was greeted with positive reviews from GQ,[1] The New York Times,[2]The New Yorker,[3] Esquire,[4] and Slate.[5] The book was named one of the Best Books of 2007 by The New York Times.[6]

Time magazine's Lev Grossman named it one of the Top 10 Fiction Books of 2007, ranking it at #2.[7]

The book won the PEN/Hemingway Award for best first novel[citation needed] and the 2007 Barnes & Noble Discover Great New Writers Award.[8][9]

References

  1. ^ Lieberstein, Paul (March 2007). "The Only Business Book You Need This Year". GQ. Vol. 77, no. 3. p. 206.
  2. ^ Poniewozik, James (March 18, 2007). "Pink Slip Blues". The New York Times.
  3. ^ "Briefly Noted: Then We Came to the End"; newyorker.com; March 26, 2007.
  4. ^ "The Leisure Meter". Esquire. Vol. 147, no. 3. March 2007. p. 68.
  5. ^ O'Rourke, Meghan (March 8, 2007). "Hell Is Other Cubicles: Joshua Ferris' new novel about work, the great American pastime". slate.com. Slate.
  6. ^ "The 10 Best Books of 2007"; The New York Times; December 9, 2007.
  7. ^ Grossman, Lev (December 24, 2007). "The 10 Best Fiction Books". Time. pp. 44–45. Archived from the original on 2007-12-12.
  8. ^ "Kate Braestrup and Joshua Ferris Win Barnes & Noble Discover Prize". Publishers Weekly. 2008-02-28. Archived from the original on 2024-04-23. Retrieved 2024-04-23.
  9. ^ "Jean Valentine, Junot Díaz Among Finalists for Los Angeles Times Book Prizes". Poets & Writers. 2008-03-05. Archived from the original on September 19, 2020. Retrieved 2024-04-23.