Vernon Subutex One

**SHORTLISTED FOR THE MAN BOOKER INTERNATIONAL 2018**

WHO IS VERNON SUBUTEX?

An urban legend.

A fall from grace.

The mirror who reflects us all.

Vernon Subutex was once the proprietor of Revolver, an infamous music shop in
Bastille. His legend spread throughout Paris. But by the 2000s his shop is
struggling. With his savings gone, his unemployment benefit cut, and the
friend who had been covering his rent suddenly dead, Vernon Subutex finds
himself down and out on the Paris streets.

He has one final card up his sleeve. Even as he holds out his hand to beg for
the first time, a throwaway comment he once made on Facebook is taking the
internet by storm. Vernon does not realise this, but the word is out: Vernon
Subutex has in his possession the last filmed recordings of Alex Bleach, the
famous musician and Vernon's benefactor, who has only just died of a drug
overdose. A crowd of people from record producers to online trolls and porn
stars are now on Vernon's trail.

Translated from the French by Frank Wynne

"Thrilling, magnificently audacious" Irish Times
"Brimming with sex, violence and deviant behaviour" Sunday Times
"Virginie Despentes's Vernon Subutex trilogy is the zeitgeistiest thing I ever
read" NELL ZINK