Toploader A Novel

by O'Loughlin, Ed

• ISBN13: 9781454901235
• ISBN10: 1454901233
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2012-10-09
• Publisher: SilverOak

Summary

If Joseph Heller and Carl Hiaasen had a literary love child in occupied Gaza or Iraq's Green Zone, it would be this insightful and darkly comic anti-war masterpiece. Spying inside the Embargoed Zone (aka the "Easy") is expensive and hazardous, and the "terrorist" double agent known as Cobra needs his wages in cash. But his down-at-the-heels spymaster from the occupying forces can only pay with an American-made, top-loading washing machine. When it turns out that this piece of clothes-washing technology is critical to the occupation, a frantic scramble to retrieve the sensitive hardware ensues. Packed with unforgettable characters--including a resourceful local teenage girl, an intrepid reporter navigating the Easy, an egotistical blogger with delusions of relevance, a hapless drone pilot, and at least one very unfortunate donkey-- Toploaderis a savage and hilarious indictment of occupation diplomacy.

Author Biography

Ed O'Loughlin was born in Toronto and raised in Ireland. He reported from Africa for the Irish Times and other newspapers, and was a correspondent in the Middle East for the Sydney Morning Herald and the Age of Melbourne. His first novel, Not Untrue and Not Unkind, was long-listed for the Man Booker Prize in 2009 and short-listed for the Kerry Irish Fiction Award in 2010.