Helloland

Nick Walker

You're plunged at once, without any clues, into the middle of a weird phone conversation, and it all seems very disjointed at first. But stick with it and a story emerges of a space shuttle launch and a hotel switchboard, of failed hopes and tragicomic lives. Off-the-wall, leftfield humour, peopled with funny, sad, screwball characters.

Extract

There was a pile of E Z maps on the reception desk. He picked one up. The map took liberties with scale. The hotel was the size of the Pentagon. Pancake Parlour looked like a Vegas casino.... The aquarium had a shark's fin sticking out of the roof. The sun in the sky was grinning like an asshole. A shuttle passed overhead. The astronauts waved. It headed towards the Milky Way where, amongst the stars and the auroras, there was an E Z constellation. An E Z satellite span. Beaming TV into a hundred smiling dishes.

Parallels