Steve Toltz: Here Goes Nothing

AAR-Steve-Toltz-Here-Goes-NothingThe virtuoso new novel from the author of the Booker-shortlisted A Fraction of the Whole, Steve Toltz delivers a novel of exhilarating originality and scope with Here Goes Nothing.

Angus Mooney has never believed in the supernatural. A reformed ne’er-do-well who was raised in a series of foster homes, he’s always felt that “people on earth are self-mythologising liars who only have premonitions in hindsight.”

But after his untimely murder, he’s shocked to find himself in the afterlife – or what he assumes is the afterlife: his designated clerk can’t give him a straight answer, and the orientation sessions are all full.

Now all Angus wants is to communicate from beyond with his pregnant wife Gracie, an unconventional wedding officiant who had finally made his life worth living.

But when Angus finds a way to see how Gracie is faring, the news is grim: his own murderer is slowly seducing her, and a worldwide pandemic has finally reached the shores of Australia, which means the afterlife is about to get much more crowded.

Narrated with the ironic hind sight afforded by life beyond the mortal plane, it is a hilariously entertaining, insightful, and moving meditation on our 21st century world, and the relationship between love and death.

Steve Toltz was born in Sydney. A Fraction of the Whole, his first novel, was published in 2008 to widespread critical acclaim. It was shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize and the Guardian First Book Award.

His equally acclaimed second novel Quicksand was published by Hamish Hamilton in 2015 and won the 2017 Russell Prize for Humour. Shortly after its publication Steve relocated to Los Angeles to work as a screenwriter. He has writing credits on major Hollywood productions such as No Activity and Guilty Party. Steve is one of Australia’s finest comic writing exports.


Here Goes Nothing is published by Penguin Australia and available from all leading book retailers including Booktopia.

Image: Here Goes Nothing – courtesy of Penguin Australia