num_pages: 448
description: "The Age of Nice is at hand, and there's nothing we can do about it." But the protagonist of Will Ferguson's Happiness , terminally luckless book editor Edwin de Valu, does want to do something. In fact, he feels obliged to put a stop to the Age of Nice, because it's all his fault. Desperate to save a flagging career in the world of self-help publishing, Edwin has staked everything on a dubious, thousand-page manuscript bearing the motto "Live! Love! Learn!" Promising its readers endless wealth, effortless weight loss, and everlasting happiness, the book has become a runaway success. And that's where Edwin's problems really begin. There's the murderous cartel of drug and tobacco barons who want Edwin's head on a plate, as well as the fact that misery, cynicism, irrational hatred, draught beer--all the things that once made Edwin's life as an underdog bearable--have become outlawed. It's down to one man to save the globe from the tyranny of the group hug! But can Edwin do it before the world economy melts down and a bestselling serial killer called Dr. Ethics enacts his own deadly revenge? It has been said--possibly by the sort of homily-peddling guru that Ferguson attacks so masterfully in his debut novel--that there are many routes to happiness. The general effect of reading this razor-sharp satire on the self-help industry is to understand that these routes lead us nowhere, except perhaps to a cul-de-sac called Hell. This would be depressing to realize, except that Happiness clubs its readers into submission with the sort of zany, almost otherworldly wit that makes us profoundly glad to be alive. --Matthew Baylis, Amazon.co.uk
language: German
title: Glück. Roman.
titlecomplete: Glück. Roman.
characters: Edwin de Valu
genres: Fiction, Canada, Comedy, Humor, Literature, Adult, Novels, Contemporary, Self Help, Adult Fiction
ratings_count: 3562
awards: awardedAt: 1009872000000
name: Stephen Leacock Memorial Medal, awardedAt: 1009872000000
name: Bollinger Everyman Wodehouse Prize
category: Comic Fiction, awardedAt: 1009872000000
name: Canadian Authors Association Award
category: Fiction
publisher: List Tb.