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Vendor
Mohrbooks Literary Agency
Sebastian Ritscher
Original language
English
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DIARY OF AN OXYGEN THIEF

Vivian P. Walsh

"I like to hurt women. Mentally, not physically."
Say Holden Caulfield was an alcoholic and Lolita was a photographer's assistant and somehow they met in Bright Lights Big City. He's blinded by love. She by ambition. DIARY OF AN OXYGEN THIEF is honest hilarious and heartrending but above all a very real account of what we do to each other and what we allow to have done to us.
In 2009, Vivian P Walsh, an award-winning creative director from the celebrated British advertising agency Saatchi and Saatchi, self-published Diary Of An Oxygen Thief anonymously. What first appears to be a brutally honest confession of a former misogynist and recovering alcoholic seeking redemption for a life spent deliberately breaking women’s hearts slowly reveals itself to be a classic case of unreliable narrator. Because the very act of purchasing the book recruits the reader into the author’s vendetta to win a race with his ex-lover to publish her version of events. In other words, if you’re reading the book, he obviously won.

It is, in short, a novel that inspires very strong reactions. Diary Of An Oxygen Thief features some of the more harrowing and honest passages about relationships you will find, and to some extent confirms women’s worst fears about men. Which has generated a significant word of mouth around it from the beginning. The opening paragraph has been tweeted and retweeted, posted and reposted, to the extent that the title itself often shows up as trending on Twitter. To date, the author has single-handedly has sold over 90,000 copies—50,000 in the past 3 months alone.

Vivian P Walsh has created award-winning commercials for some of the world's most celebrated ad agencies, including Saatchi and Saatchi in London and Fallon in the US. His awards include the coveted Titanium at Cannes for Best Campaign as well as D&AD (Gold and Silver), One Show, Clio, Creative Circle and Epica. He presently works as a freelance copywriter in the digital advertising division of Young & Rubicam and he lives in The East Village.
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Book

Published 2016-06-14 by Gallery

Book

Published 2016-06-14 by Gallery

Comments

F Scott Fitzgerald for the iPod generation.

I loved it! The writer does a great job.

Screen rights were acquired by Gotham Group, as announced today in an article in Deadline. Read more...

Artsy, swoon-worthy and kinky.

Publisher's Weekly ran a story last week on DIARY OF AN OXYGEN THIEF. The article delves into the book's journey from underground self-published success to publication by Simon & Schuster. Read more...

UK: Corsair ; Brazil: Intrinseca ; Czech: Albatros; Korea: Minumsa ; Russia: Eksmo Film Rights sold to Gotham Group

DIARY OF AN OXYGEN THIEF has hit #10 on the New York Times Bestseller List! (28.7.16) now on the list for the 6th straight week (20.9.16)

An Associated Press story appeared today in newspapers across the country... (May 24, 2016) Read more...