On the Bus Without a Phone

Taking place over the course of a bus journey en route to a first date, BABAK GANJEI'S debut novel charts the seemingly infinite disappointments, misunderstandings and humiliations that have piled up over the course of narrator Bob Green's life to date. Bob's immediate circumstances, and the cast of characters with which he shares them, provide the imaginative jumping off point for digressions on teenage love, suburban ennui, pornography, race and identity, mobile phones, Converse, adult love, fatherhood, fast food, MF DOOM, the etiquette of bus seating and, perhaps most importantly of all, The Remains of the Day.

On the Bus Without a Phone is a dazzlingly intelligent, unashamedly comedic and ultimately moving work from a hugely original new writer. With his surrealist flair, world-weary melancholy and self-effacing humour, Ganjei is a Brautigan for the digital age.

"I read On the Bus… on the bus, howling with laughter and wishing the man sitting next to me was Bob—its wonderful hero—so I could turn to him and tell him how much I love him. Babak Ganjei's book is a tenderhearted, hilarious thing of beauty. I laughed so much I've been banned from public transport." —Jeff Young

"A thousand times more enjoyable than the average bus ride, Ganjei's misfit wit and flashes of insight turn this everyday trip into a vivid dissection of the digisphere's illusion of connection, and all the pleasure and pain of its often less-than-sufficient remedy: reality." —Richard Milward

"Whimsical, but deep, joyful but profound. A striking debut novel—poignant writing that delivers a punch."—Lou Sanders

"Weirdly relatable, endlessly bleak, and laugh out loud funny."—James Acaster

"The most triggering book title of the 2020s. On the Bus Without a Phone is an absurd odyssey from a true one-off comedic genius. I ❤️ BG."—Jack Rooke

"Like being invited inside the mind of the lunatic sat next to you on the bus... and realising that he has the charming, broken soul of a kitchen-sink poet."—Drew Pearce

"Magnificent—of course."—Sophie Heawood

"Poetic prose, moving and funny."—Beth Orton_x000B_

_x000B_"Funny, tangential and melancholic. Babak Ganjei is a pleasure to read."—Sheena Patel

© 2026 Rough Trade Books (E-bog): 9781914236655

Udgivelsesdato

E-bog: 2. april 2026