Randall

Randall Synopsis

Early on in this bravura debut we are informed that Hirst was hit and killed by a train in 1989 ("apparently when drunk") – and the focus of everyone's attention falls instead on Randall. Randall – a big, lumbering ape of a man – is a genius of language as much as art, supremely able to baffle, bemuse and amuse the press, public and all around him.

He makes a fortune, causes chaos, changes the art world – the whole world – and provides brilliant quips every step of the way: "There's only two things you can do with art: make it, and buy it. Everything else – talking about it, thinking about it, selling it, looking at it – either comes under one of those two, or doesn't count."

As well as providing a sharp, smart commentary on art and capitalism, there's a soft beating heart to Randall. Above everything else, this is a story of love and friendship and loss, as seen through the eyes of Randall's sidekick, Vincent – a narrator very much in the traditional of Nick Carraway of The Great Gatsby or Charles Ryder of Brideshead Revisited.

It is touching as well as funny, humane as well as wonderfully cruel. It is a book we expect to get both literary acclaim and notoriety. It will kick ass.