One warm July morning Mr Phillips climbs out of bed, leaving Mrs Phillips dozing. He prepares for his commute into the city - but this is no ordinary Monday. It is a day on which Mr Phillips will chat with a pornographer, stalk a TV mini-celebrity, have lunch with an aspiring record mogul and get caught up in a bank robbery.

So why is Mr Phillips, a cautious middle-aged accountant, not at work?

In Mr Phllllps John Lanchester has created an unforgettable character and shown him getting to know his city in beautiful detail. It is a novel both comic and profound, brilliant and moving, confirming John Lanchester as one of the leading novelists at work today.

’For the many fans of 1Rite Debt to Pleasure, opening this book is a daunting experience. You are liable to think "What if it lets me down?" It doesn’t... To read this book is the greatest fun. It is as easy to read as it must have been difficult to write.’Barbara Trapido, Independent on Sunday

’The comedy is Lanchester’s finest balancing act, a series of subtle and minute adjustments that allow us to see Mr Phillips one minute as acute and sensitive observer, the other as faintly ridiculous... Its central trick, the meticulous accretion of detail that conceals as much as it reveals, is neatly and brilliantly achieved. It manages to be shamelessly sentimental and DroDerlv reticent at the same time, both ironic and innocent.’Alex Clark, Guardian

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