Warren Spooner is a trouble magnet. The worst of situations find him without so much as trying. His twin brother died at birth, robbing his mother of her favourite child. Calamities pile up from there, from freezing urine inside people’s shoes to a near-death encounter with a tyre-iron in a wild bar brawl. But Spooner has an ally in his kind-hearted and tirelessly patient stepfather, Calmer Ottosson. Ottosson guides Spooner as best he can through life’s vicissitudes, a lifelong task that wickedly tests but ultimately does not defeat him.

There is a strong autobiographical streak to this novel, with Spooner’s ascent to successful newspaper-man and his geographic wanderings following Pete Dexter’s own life. The bar brawl is a true tale also, an episode that landed Dexter in hospital early in his wanderings. Dexter is in marvelous form here, mining the darkest aspects of our humanity with a kind of malicious glee, lending Spooner the authenticity and hilarity of a life lived to its fullest. The novel also passes my most important test, and I urge you to try it. Turn to any page, begin reading, and you will encounter a gem. It really is that good.