'Even the worst person has a best friend.
'A chilling black comedy, The First Friend imagines a gangster mob in charge of a global superpower.
'The Soviet Union 1938: Lavrentiy Beria, 'The Boss' of the Georgian republic, nervously prepares a Black Sea resort for a visit from 'The Boss of Bosses', his fellow Georgian Josef Stalin. Under escalating pressure from enemies and allies alike, Beria slowly but surely descends into murderous paranoia.
'By his side is Vasil Murtov, Beria's closest friend since childhood. But to be a witness is dangerous; Murtov must protect his family and play his own game of survival while remaining outwardly loyal to an increasingly unstable Beria. The tension ramps up as Stalin's visit and the inevitable bloodbath approaches. Is Murtov playing Beria, or is he being played?
'The First Friend is a novel in a time of autocrats, where reality is a fiction created by those who rule. Reflecting on Putin's Russia, Trump's America, Xi's China and Murdoch's planet Earth, it is at once a satire and a thriller, a survivor's tale in which a father has to walk a tightrope every day to save his family from a monster and a monstrous society. Where safety lies in following official fictions, is a truthful life the ultimate risk?' (Publication summary)
Malcolm Knox Finds Comedy in Toxic Friendships
Michael Williams
(interviewer),
2024
28898182
2024
single work
podcast
interview
'Malcolm Knox began his career as a journalist for the Sydney Morning Herald, back in the 90s. His breakout was in 2004 when, as literary editor, he broke the story of the fake Jordanian memoirist, Norma Khouri for which he won a Walkley Award. Since then he has written more than a dozen books of nonfiction and has been publishing fiction since 2000. The First Friend is his seventh novel.' (Production summary)
'A thriller, a satire and an insight into humankind’s inhumanity.'
'A toxic friendship between a Soviet despot and his chauffeur is the basis for a novel that channels Armando Iannucci with a laconically Australian twist'
'Fans of Soviet history and/or the 2017 comedy film, The Death of Stalin, will remember Levrentiy Pavlovich Beria as the ruthless would-be successor to a certain General Secretary left lying on the floor in a puddle of his own urine following a stroke because, as historian Simon Sebag Montefiore puts it, “his comrades and his doctors were too terrified to treat him in case he was merely drunk”.' (Introduction)
'A toxic friendship between a Soviet despot and his chauffeur is the basis for a novel that channels Armando Iannucci with a laconically Australian twist'
'A thriller, a satire and an insight into humankind’s inhumanity.'
Malcolm Knox Finds Comedy in Toxic Friendships
Michael Williams
(interviewer),
2024
28898182
2024
single work
podcast
interview
'Malcolm Knox began his career as a journalist for the Sydney Morning Herald, back in the 90s. His breakout was in 2004 when, as literary editor, he broke the story of the fake Jordanian memoirist, Norma Khouri for which he won a Walkley Award. Since then he has written more than a dozen books of nonfiction and has been publishing fiction since 2000. The First Friend is his seventh novel.' (Production summary)
