Bed (Paperback)

From the Publisher: Now in paperback, David Whitehouse's ?ingenious? (The New York Times), ?deeply affecting? (People) and award-winning debut novel about two brothers, obesity, celebrity, and the redemptive power of love.Mal Ede, a child of untamed manners and unbounded curiosity, is the eccentric eldest son of an otherwise typical middle-class family. But as the wonders of childhood fade into the responsibilities of adulthood, Mal's spirits fade too. On his twenty-fifth birthday, disillusioned, Mal goes to bed?back to his childhood bed?and never emerges again.      What follows is a metamorphosis of extreme proportions: immobility and a gargantuan appetite combine, over the course of two decades, to make Mal the fattest man in the world. Despite his seclusion, Mal's condition earns him worldwide notoriety and a cult of followers convinced he is making an important statement about modern life. But as these followers elevate Mal to the role of unlikely hero, his actions will also change the lives of his haunted parents; his dutiful brother, our narrator; and the woman they both love, Lou.      In Bed, David Whitehouse has put a magnifying glass on contemporary society. Published in more than a dozen countries around the world, this ?momentous? (The Bookseller) debut has been hailed as ?a kind of suburban equivalent of Wuthering Heights? and its author as ?the next Martin Amis? (Maclean's).