Meatspace Book Reviews

Meatspace by Nikesh Shukla Book Summary

The second novel from Costa First Novel Award shortlisted author Nikesh Shukla.

'The first and last thing I do every day is see what strangers are saying about me.'

Kitab Balasubramanyam has had a rough few months. His girlfriend left him. He got fired from the job he hated for writing a novel on company time, but the novel didn’t sell and now he’s burning through his mum’s life insurance money. His father has more success with women than he does, and his Facebook comments get more likes. Kitab is reduced to spending all of his time in his flat with his brother Aziz, coming up with ideas for novelty Tumblrs and composing amusing tweets. But now even Aziz has left him, travelling to America to find his doppelganger.

So what happens when Kitab Balasubramanyam’s only internet namesake turns up on his doorstep and insists that they are meant to be friends?
Meatspace is a hilarious and troubling analysis of what happens when our lives become nothing more than an aggregation of shared content, when our online personas are more interesting than real life. A brilliant follow-up from an acclaimed young novelist writing at the sharp edge of modern life.

Reviews

‘Like Douglas Coupland’s Generation X, this novel captures
a cultural moment’
– Guardian

‘An anarchic, self-involved and admirably honest portrait of
a bookish life lived in the brave new digital world’
– New Statesman

‘Chilling’
– Observer

‘Buzzing with streetwise smarts and satirical barbs, it’s a
thoughtful, often hilarious, meditation on a young writer’s
loneliness in the digital age’
– Independent on Sunday

‘Brilliant stuff ’
– Londonist

‘Hilarious and disturbing’
– Stylist

‘Meatspace is funny. Damn funny. You
should really switch off your computer and read it’
– Matt Haig, author of The Humans

‘Meatspace is the greatest book on loneliness since The Catcher in the Rye’
– Gary Shteyngart, author of Super Sad True Love Story

‘Totally original and funny and humane’
– Sathnam Sanghera, author of The Boy with The Topknot

‘Meatspace is, simply, one of the finest novels I have ever read
about modern life and modern living. Douglas
Coupland, Junot Diaz, Chuck Palahniuk and Jennifer Egan:
stick them in a blendr, and out comes this amazing new novel
by one of the UK’s most distinct voices’
– James Smythe, author of The Machine

‘Very funny and I’d recommend it to anyone’
– Rick Edwards in the Metro

About the author

Nikesh Shukla is a writer of fiction and television and host of the Subaltern podcast. His debut novel, Coconut Unlimited was shortlisted for the Costa First Novel Award 2010 and longlisted for the Desmond Elliott Prize 2011. Meatspace is his second novel.

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