{"product_id":"ablutions-by-patrick-dewitt","title":"'Ablutions' by Patrick deWitt","description":"\u003ch4 data-start=\"49\" data-end=\"607\" class=\"PDq2pG_selectionAnchorContainer\"\u003ePatrick deWitt's debut novel is a grim, darkly comic portrait of addiction and service work, following an unnamed bartender through the long nights of a dive bar populated by drunks, dealers, sex workers and men coming apart.\u003c\/h4\u003e\n\u003cp data-start=\"49\" data-end=\"607\" class=\"PDq2pG_selectionAnchorContainer\"\u003eTold almost entirely in the second person, the novel creates the unsettling sense that the narrator is both speaking to himself and watching his own life from a slight remove. Rather than following a conventional plot, \u003cem data-start=\"502\" data-end=\"513\"\u003eAblutions\u003c\/em\u003e accumulates scenes, routines and observations until an emotional collapse becomes inevitable.\u003cspan aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"PDq2pG_selectionAnchor\"\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp data-start=\"609\" data-end=\"1052\"\u003eWritten before \u003cem data-start=\"624\" data-end=\"646\"\u003eThe Sisters Brothers\u003c\/em\u003e brought deWitt international recognition, \u003cem data-start=\"689\" data-end=\"700\"\u003eAblutions\u003c\/em\u003e remains one of his sharpest books. It combines deadpan humour with genuine tenderness, capturing the strange intimacies of addiction without romanticising them. Readers drawn to Denis Johnson, Harry Crews or the bleaker corners of American literary fiction will find a novel that is as interested in exhaustion and self-deception as it is in recovery.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp data-start=\"609\" data-end=\"1052\"\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e2012 Granta paperback edition. Light shelf wear to wraps with a clean, unmarked interior.\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"bower studio","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":45787988623443,"sku":null,"price":14.0,"currency_code":"AUD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0689\/0268\/2707\/files\/Untitleddesign-2026-07-06T175044.562.png?v=1783324284","url":"https:\/\/bowerbooks.com\/products\/ablutions-by-patrick-dewitt","provider":"bower books","version":"1.0","type":"link"}