Black Buck

Mateo Askaripour

From Shelf: Favourite Novels Read in 2021

A New York Times bestseller, Black Buck is a crackling, satirical debut novel about a young man given a shot at stardom as the lone Black salesman at a mysterious, cult-like, and wildly successful startup where nothing is as it seems.

'Askaripour's satire of the tech industry . . . will appeal to fans of Paul Beatty's Booker-prizewinning novel "The Sellout" and Jordan Peele's film "Get Out"' The Economist'Mesmerizing. . . a high wire act full of verve and dark, comic energy.' Colson Whitehead, author of The Underground Railroad'I love this so much. It's effortlessly funny, smart and satisfyingly self-aware' Candice Carty-Williams, author of QueenieMeet Darren. An unambitious twenty-two-year-old living with his mother and working at Starbucks. All that changes when a chance encounter with Rhett Daniels, the silver-tongued CEO of NYC's hottest tech startup, results in Darren joining Rhett's elite sales team.On his first day Darren realizes he is the only Black person in the company, and when things start to get strange, he reimagines himself as 'Buck', a ruthless salesman, unrecognizable to his friends and family. Money, partying, and fame soon follow Buck, and wherever he goes more is never enough. But when tragedy strikes at home, Buck begins to hatch a plan to help young people of colour infiltrate America's sales force, setting off a chain of events that forever changes the game.An earnest work of satire, Black Buck is a hilarious, razor-sharp skewering of office culture; a propulsive, crackling debut that explores ambition and race, and makes way for a necessary new vision of the American dream.'A crackling satire of corporate America' Guardian'A wonderful, riotous romp. A razor sharp, humorous examination of American workplace dynamics in the tech industry' Irenosen Okojie