num_pages: 309
description: From the author of the critically acclaimed Hokkaido Highway Blues comes this hysterically funny debut novel, a searing and compulsive satire on the concept of self-help and contemporary America.When an enormous self-help manuscript arrives on the desk of Edwin de Valu, a stressed-out, overworked, and underpaid editor at New York's Panderic Press, its fate seems destined for the bin. Edwin's cynicism about self-help books, coupled with his filthy mood that morning, results in his dismissing Tupak Soiree's What I Learned on the Mountain in the most ignominious fashion: he doesn't even bother to reply.However, during an editorial meeting Edwin is confronted by a questioning publisher, one desperate for the next big thing. Without thinking, and in need of something to report, Edwin begins to extol the virtues of What I Learned on the Mountain, and the excitement around the table is palpable. With every reason.Tupak Soiree's doorstopper becomes a very unique thing: a self-help book that actually works, and it launches a chain of events that will have enormous consequences not just on Edwin's life but for the world at large.Ferguson's first novel is a masterpiece of comic fiction, a must for anyone who has choked on Chicken Soup for the Soul or ever wanted to kill Dr. Phil.
language: English
title: Happiness™
titlecomplete: Happiness™
characters: Edwin de Valu
genres: Canada, Adult, Comedy, Novels, Literature, Humor, Fiction, Contemporary, Adult Fiction, Self Help
ratings_count: 3563
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: Canongate