Last Orders by Graham Swift | PenguinRandomHouse.com

About Last Orders

Four men gather in a London pub. They have taken it upon themselves to carry out the last orders of Jack Dodds, master butcher, and deliver his ashes to the sea. As they drive towards the fulfillment of their mission, their errand becomes an extraordinary journey into their collective and individual pasts. Braiding these men’s voices, and that of Jack’s widow, into a choir of sorrow and resentment, passion and regret, Swift creates a testament to a changing England and to enduring mortality.

"Swift has involved us in real, lived lives…Quietly, but with conviction, he seeks to affirm the values of decency, loyalty, love."–New York Review of Books

"A beautiful book…a novel that speaks profoundly of human need and tenderness. Even the most cynical will be warmed by it."–San Francisco Chronicle

About Last Orders

Four men gather in a London pub. They have taken it upon themselves to carry out the last orders of Jack Dodds, master butcher, and deliver his ashes to the sea. As they drive towards the fulfillment of their mission, their errand becomes an extraordinary journey into their collective and individual pasts. Braiding these men’s voices, and that of Jack’s widow, into a choir of sorrow and resentment, passion and regret, Swift creates a testament to a changing England and to enduring mortality.

"Swift has involved us in real, lived lives…Quietly, but with conviction, he seeks to affirm the values of decency, loyalty, love."–New York Review of Books

"A beautiful book…a novel that speaks profoundly of human need and tenderness. Even the most cynical will be warmed by it."–San Francisco Chronicle

Awards

Booker Prize WINNER 1996

Man Booker Prize WINNER 1996

IMPAC Dublin Literary Award FINALIST 1998

Praise

“A profound, intricately stratified novel full of life, love lost and love enduring.” — The Globe and Mail

“Swift is surely one of England’s finest living novelists…. The tale he tells is as affecting as it is convincing…. Quietly, but with conviction, he seeks to reaffirm the values of decency, loyalty, love.” — The New York Review of Books

About Graham Swift

GRAHAM SWIFT was born in 1949 and is the author of ten novels; two collections of short stories; and Making an Elephant, a book of essays, portraits, poetry and reflections on his life in writing. With Waterland he won The Guardian Fiction Award, and… More about Graham Swift

About Graham Swift

GRAHAM SWIFT was born in 1949 and is the author of ten novels; two collections of short stories; and Making an Elephant, a book of essays, portraits, poetry and reflections on his life in writing. With Waterland he won The Guardian Fiction Award, and… More about Graham Swift

Author Q&A

Graham Swift was born in 1949 in London, where he still lives and works. He is the author of six novels: The Sweet-Shop Owner, Shuttlecock, which received the Geoffrey Faber Memorial Prize; Waterland, which was short-listed for the Booker Prize and won the Guardian Fiction Award, the Winifred Holtby Memorial Prize, and the Italian Permio Grinzane Cavour; Out of This World; Ever After, which won the French Prix du Meilleur Livre Étranger; and Last Orders, which was awarded the Booker Prize. He is also the author of Learning to Swim, a collection of short stories. His work has been translated into more than twenty languages.