The Odyssey – Lara Williams in conversation with Naomi Booth at Blackwell's Bookshop

Blackwell’s Bookshop host the launch of Lara Williams’ brilliant new novel The Odyssey – a wickedly funny and slyly poignant satire on modern life. Lara will be in conversation with host Naomi Booth (Sealed, Exit Management).

Doors: 18.30, event starts: 18.45

Tickets are £3.00 or free when pre-ordering a copy of the book. The Odyssey will also be available to purchase on the night and Lara will be signing copies after the talk. If you would like a signed copy but cannot make the event, please contact Blackwell’s on 0161 274 3331 or manchester@blackwell.co.uk and they can arrange this for you.

About the book:

Meet Ingrid. She works on a gargantuan luxury cruise liner, where she spends her days reorganising the merchandise and waiting for long-term guests to drop dead in the changing rooms. On her days off, she disembarks from the ship and gets blind drunk on whatever the local alcohol is. It’s not a bad life. And it distracts her from thinking about the other life she left behind five years ago.

Until one day she is selected for the employee mentorship scheme – an initiative run by the ship’s mysterious captain and self-anointed lifestyle guru, Keith, who pushes Ingrid further than she thought possible. But sooner or later, she will have to ask herself: how far is too far?

Utterly original, mischievous and thought-provoking, The Odyssey is a merciless takedown of consumer capitalism and our anxious, ill-fated quests for something to believe in. And as its title suggests, it is a voyage that will eventually lead its unlikely heroine all the way home. Though she’d do almost anything to avoid getting there…