London Fields (novel)

For the area of London, see London Fields. For the film, see London Fields (film).

London Fields
First edition
AuthorMartin Amis
LanguageEnglish
GenreBlack comedy
PublisherJonathan Cape
Publication date
21 September 1989
Publication placeUnited Kingdom
Pages470 pages
ISBN0-224-02609-7

London Fields is a blackly comic murder mystery novel by the British writer Martin Amis, published in 1989. The tone gradually shifts from high comedy, interspersed with deep personal introspections, to a dark sense of foreboding and eventually panic at the approach of the deadline, or "horrorday", the climactic scene alluded to on the very first page.[1]

The story is narrated by Samson Young (Sam), an American writer living in London who has had writer's block for 20 years and is now terminally ill. The other main characters are Guy Clinch, the foil; Keith Talent, the cheat; and Nicola Six, the murder victim, who knows that she will be murdered a few minutes after midnight on 5 November 1999—her 35th birthday—and who goes in search of her killer.[2]

  1. ^ Diedrick, p. 118ff.
  2. ^ Diedrick, p. 119.