Eleven

Told entirely in e-mails sent and received by Martin Davies, would-be author and frustrated corporate accountant, this debut novel is set on September 11, 2001, in Cardiff, Wales. In denial about his breakup with his girlfriend and baffled by the triviality of his life, Martin gossips online at his desk and makes plans for the weekend untiljust after his crowd of young professionals returns from lunchpeople start flying airliners into office buildings in New York City. Very funny and then brutally sad, Martin's messages by the time the day is over have run the gamut from nonsense straight out of The Officeto something closer to a play by Samuel Beckett.

David Llewellyn is the author of short stories and comedy sketches for the BBC, and he collaborated on the feature-length filmscript Somewhere, performed live at the Cardiff Screen Festival in 2003.