120,000+ Books, Games & Puzzles in-stock 🇳🇿

Enjoy overnight delivery from our 100% NZ-owned independent bookstore 🚀

Choke

By Chuck Palahniuk
0.0 (0 reviews)
3.71 goodreads logo

Ratings/reviews counts are updated frequently.

Check link for latest rating. ( 219,295 ratings, 7,944 reviews)
Book Hero Magic crafted this summary to help describe this book. While it's new and still learning, it may not be perfect - your feedback is welcome! Summary
Choke by Chuck Palahniuk is a darkly comedic tale of Victor Mancini, a man struggling with intimacy and identity issues. To pay for his mother's medical care, Victor resorts to an unusual con: feigning choking in restaurants to elicit sympathy—and money—from his "rescuers." The narrative also explores his compulsion to attend sex addiction meetings, all while seeking existential meaning in chaotic circumstances.
Read More
Format: Paperback / softback
$2700
Elsewhere:
$2899
OVERNIGHT NZ-WIDE DELIVERY

Found a better price? Request a price match

Book Hero Magic created this recommendation. While it's new and still learning, it may not be perfect - your feedback is welcome! IS THIS YOUR NEXT READ?

This book may appeal to you if you're intrigued by dark humour and deeply flawed yet fascinating characters. It explores themes of addiction, identity, and the complex dynamics of a man who cons others while exploring his own personal crises. Ideal for readers who appreciate satirical takes on modern life with an edgy and provocative narrative style.

Book Hero thinking about your next read

Victor Mancini has devised a complicated scam to pay for his mother's hospital care: pretend to be choking on a piece of food in a restaurant and the person who 'saves you' will feel responsible for you for the rest of their lives.

From the author of the international sensation FIGHT CLUB comes a powerful and hilarious novel about love and strife between mothers and sons, the addictive power of sex, the terrors of ageing, the ugly truth about historical theme parks, and much else. ..

Book Hero Magic formatted this description to make it easier to read. While it's new and still learning, it may not be perfect - your feedback is welcome! Description

Choke is Fight Club for sex addicts — Independent on Sunday

By The Author of Fight Club

Victor Mancini has devised a complicated scam to pay for his mother's hospital care — pretend to be choking on a piece of food in a restaurant, and the person who 'saves' you will feel responsible for you for the rest of their lives. Multiply that a couple of hundred times, and you generate a healthy flow of cheques, week in, week out.

Victor also works at a theme park with a motley group of losers, cruises sex addiction groups for action, and visits his mother, whose Alzheimer's disease now hides what may be the startling truth about his parentage.

Book Hero Magic summarised reviews for this book. While it's new and still learning, it may not be perfect - your feedback is welcome! HOW HAS THIS BEEN REVIEWED?

Choke by Chuck Palahniuk offers a gripping, exaggerated portrayal of American society, marked by grotesque and vice-like storytelling. The author's unique style blends raw depictions of modern issues with moments that are both outrageous and darkly humorous, reminiscent of Bret Easton Ellis and George Saunders. Praise highlights the book's imaginative brilliance, engaging narrative, and compelling, pungent imagery.

Book Hero reading reviews

Book Details

INFORMATION

ISBN: 9780099422686

Publisher: Vintage Publishing

Format: Paperback / softback

Date Published: 01 August 2002

Country: United Kingdom

Imprint: Vintage

Audience: General / adult

DIMENSIONS

Spine width: 18.0mm

Width: 130.0mm

Height: 198.0mm

Weight: 215g

Pages: 304

Collections

Best Sellers at Book Hero Chuck Palahniuk Fiction General Fiction Humour In Stock Books In-Stock Fiction Books Literary Fiction New Release Fiction Penguin Books

About the Author

Chuck Palahniuk is the author of fifteen best-selling novels - Make Something Up, Beautiful You, Doomed, Damned, Tell-All, Pygmy, Snuff, Rant, Haunted, Diary, Lullaby, Choke, Invisible Monsters, Survivor, and Fight Club. He is also the author of Fugitives and Refugees and the non-fiction collection Stranger Than Fiction. He lives in the Pacific Northwest. Visit him on the web at chuckpalahniuk.net.

Also by Chuck Palahniuk

View all
  • Fight Club
    Nine spine-tingling, mind-altering, and deliciously atmospheric, journey into the dark side of America with nine of its most uncanny classics. Vintage Classics' American Gothic Series Spine-tingling, mind-altering, and deliciously atmospheric, journey into the dark side of America with nine of its most uncanny classics. Every weekend, in basements and parking lots across the country, young men with good white-collar jobs...
    By Chuck Palahniuk
    Paperback
    $2200
    Elsewhere:
    $2600
    Available
    Ships in 4-6 weeks
  • Haunted
    Definitely not for the faint-hearted. This short story collection has been described as 'the most original work of fiction this year' by The Guardian. Haunted is a novel made up of stories—twenty-three of the most horrifying, hilarious, mind-blowing, stomach-churning tales you'll ever encounter. They are told by the people who have all answered an ad headlined 'Artists Retreat—Abandon your life...
    By Chuck Palahniuk
    Paperback
    $2500
    Elsewhere:
    $2699
    In Stock
    Ships today
  • The Invention of Sound
    Chuck Palahniuk returns with the chilling tale, in classic Palahniuk tradition, of a father in search of his daughter, a young woman with a secret, and a malicious recording that can make "the whole world scream at the exact same time." Private detective Foster Gates is a father in search of his missing daughter, and sound engineer Mitzi harbours a...
    By Chuck Palahniuk
    Paperback
    $2300
    Elsewhere:
    $2499
    In Stock
    Ships today
  • Invisible Monsters
    "Maybe our generation has found its Don DeLillo" - Bret Easton Ellis. By the author of Fight Club. She's a catwalk model who has everything - a boyfriend, a career, a loyal best friend. But when a sudden motor 'accident' leaves her disfigured and incapable of speech, she goes from being the beautiful centre of attention to being an invisible...
    By Chuck Palahniuk
    Paperback
    $2500
    Elsewhere:
    $2699
    Available
    Ships in 4-6 weeks
  • Fight Club
    Every weekend, in basements and parking lots across the country, young men with good white-collar jobs and absent fathers take off their shoes and shirts and fight each other barehanded for as long as they have to. Then they go back to those jobs with blackened eyes and loosened teeth and the sense that they can handle anything. Fight Club...
    By Chuck Palahniuk
    Paperback
    $2400
    Elsewhere:
    $2600
    In Stock
    Ships today
  • Adjustment Day
    The author of Fight Club takes America beyond our darkest dreams in this timely satire. People pass the word only to those they trust most—Adjustment Day is coming. They've been reading a mysterious blue-black book and memorising its directives. They are ready for the reckoning. In this ingeniously comic work, Chuck Palahniuk's first novel in four years, he does what...
    By Chuck Palahniuk
    Paperback
    $2400
    Elsewhere:
    $2600
    Available
    Ships in 4-6 weeks
  • Shock Induction
    From the bestselling author of Fight Club comes a dark, satirical parable about a string of mysterious high school disappearances, the seedy underbellies of billionaires, and the tough choices we make in the face of an uncertain future. In Shock Induction, the best and brightest students at a seemingly reputable high school are disappearing. Every day, it seems another overachiever...
    By Chuck Palahniuk
    Paperback
    Sold Out
  • Consider This
    Renowned, bestselling novelist Chuck Palahniuk takes us behind the scenes of the writing life, with postcards from decades on the road and incredible examination of the power of fiction and the art of storytelling. In this spellbinding blend of memoir and insight, bestselling author Chuck Palahniuk shares stories and generous advice on what makes writing powerful and what makes for...
    By Chuck Palahniuk
    Paperback
    Sold Out
  • Shock Induction
    Shock Induction
    A biting satire that exposes American money, greed and elitism Sunday Independent From the bestselling author of Fight Club comes a dark, satirical parable about a string of mysterious high school disappearances, the seedy underbellies of billionaires, and the tough choices we make in the face of an uncertain future. In Shock Induction, the best and brightest students at a...
    By Chuck Palahniuk
    Paperback
    Sold Out
  • Tell-All
    Chuck Palahniuk tackles Hollywood in a hilarious assault on celebrity and the Golden Age of Hollywood, when grand dames ruled the roost. 'Every word he's written about me is a lie including "and" and "the"...' For decades, Hazie Coogan has tended to the outsized needs of Katherine 'Miss Kathie' Kenton, a star with the wattage of Elizabeth Taylor and the...
    By Chuck Palahniuk
    Paperback
    Sold Out
  • Not Forever, But For Now
    From the bestselling author of Fight Club comes a hilarious horror satire about a family of professional killers responsible for the most atrocious events in history and the young brothers that are destined to take over. Meet Otto and Cecil. Two brothers growing up privileged in the Welsh countryside. They enjoy watching nature shows, playing with their pet pony, impersonating...
    By Chuck Palahniuk
    Paperback
    Sold Out

More from General Fiction

View all
  • The Wedding People
    'BEST READ OF THE YEAR SO FAR' THE TIMES 'BOOKS AS FUN AS THIS ONE ARE FEW AND FAR BETWEEN' GUARDIAN Phoebe Stone arrives at a grand beachside hotel in Rhode Island wearing her best dress and least comfortable shoes. Immediately she is mistaken for one of the wedding people — but she's actually the only guest at the Cornwall...
    By Alison Espach
    Paperback
    $2399
    Elsewhere:
    $2799
    (3)
    In Stock
    Ships today
  • Lizzy's Pick Lizzy's Pick
    Yesteryear
    A BOLD AND BITING SATIRE. WILL HAVE YOU GASPING TO THE FINAL PAGE — Nita Prose WICKEDLY FUNNY, BEAUTIFULLY WRITTEN AND FRIGHTENINGLY PERCEPTIVE — Abigail Dean INVENTIVE, ADDICTIVE, A WILD RIDE — Ashley Audrain SHOT THROUGH WITH HUMOUR AND LACED WITH DARKNESS — Clare Mackintosh The Stepford Wives meets The Handmaid's Tale — Hannah Deitch My name was Natalie Heller...
    By Caro Claire Burke
    Paperback
    $2999
    Elsewhere:
    $3699
    (3)
    In Stock
    Ships today
  • Dylan's Pick Dylan's Pick
    Theo of Golden
    THE INTERNATIONAL BESTSELLING PHENOMENON'For anything to be truly good, there must be love in it. Nothing is what it's supposed to be if love is not at the core.' One morning, a stranger arrives in the town of Golden. No one knows who he is or where he came from…His name is Theo and he's arrived there by chance –...
    By Allen Levi
    Paperback
    $2899
    Elsewhere:
    $3499
    (6)
    In Stock
    Ships today
  • Dungeon Crawler Carl
    The apocalypse will be televised! Welcome to the first book in the wildly popular and addictive Dungeon Crawler Carl series by Matt Dinniman-now with bonus material exclusive to the print edition! You know what's worse than breaking up with your girlfriend? Being stuck with her prize-winning show cat. And you know what's worse than that? An alien invasion, the destruction...
    By Matt Dinniman
    Paperback
    $3199
    Elsewhere:
    $3800
    (1)
    In Stock
    Ships today
  • Fourth Wing
    THE INSTANT SUNDAY TIMES AND NUMBER ONE GLOBAL BESTSELLING PHENOMENON! DON'T MISS OUT ON THE SERIES THAT EVERYONE CAN'T STOP TALKING ABOUT: 'This book contains an addictive, drug-like essence that will make you relinquish all responsibility until the very last word. Do not say I didn't warn you' Glamour 'I didn't sleep, I didn't eat, and when I finished, I...
    By Rebecca Yarros
    Paperback
    $2200
    Elsewhere:
    $3999
    (1)
    In Stock
    Ships today
  • The Dungeon Anarchist's Cookbook
    Carl and Princess Donut have to team up with other contestants to not just survive, but to solve a deadly puzzle in this third, mind-twisting novel in the addictive Dungeon Crawler Carl series -now with bonus material exclusive to this print edition! Carl and Donut have survived so far, but this fourth level is unlike anything they could imagine. The...
    By Matt Dinniman
    Hardback
    $4700
    Elsewhere:
    $6000
    In Stock
    Ships today
  • New Release
    Shirl's Pick Shirl's Pick
    Taipei Story
    TAIPEI STORY is the electrifying new novel by bestselling literary phenomenon Rebecca F. Kuang, a profoundly moving coming-of-age story that explores first love, second language and final goodbyes – all set against the backdrop of one unforgettable summer in Taipei. Yale student Lily Chen arrives in Taipei hungry: for family, for culture, for connection. But her summer of discovery quickly...
    By R.F. Kuang
    Paperback
    $2999
    Elsewhere:
    $3699
    (3)
    In Stock
    Ships today
  • The Gate of the Feral Gods
    The fourth book in the explosive LitRPG Dungeon Crawler Carl series New Achievement! Total, Utter Failure.You failed a quest less than five minutes after you received it. Now that's talent. Surviving in a multilevel dungeon that also happens to be the set of the galaxy's most watched game show has taught Coast Guard vet Carl and his ex-girlfriend's cat, Princess...
    By Matt Dinniman
    Hardback
    $6000
    (2)
    In Stock
    Ships today
  • Iron Flame
    The instant number one Sunday Times bestseller and thrilling sequel to the global phenomenon, Fourth Wing! DON'T BE THE LAST TO DISCOVER THE SERIES THAT EVERYONE CAN'T STOP TALKING ABOUT: 'Yarros is the true inheritor of Harry Potter and inspires Hunger Games levels of devotion' Guardian 'Fear not, levels of fighting, rebelliousness and all-round sexiness are still sky-high' Daily Mail...
    By Rebecca Yarros
    Paperback
    $2200
    Elsewhere:
    $3999
    (1)
    In Stock
    Ships today
  • Haunting Adeline
    VIRAL BOOKTOK SENSATION AND USA TODAY BESTSELLING AUTHOR! The Manipulator I can manipulate the emotions of anyone who lets me. I will make you hurt, make you cry, make you laugh and sigh. But my words don't affect him. Especially not when I plead for him to leave. He's always there, watching and waiting. And I can never look away....
    By H. D. Carlton
    Paperback
    $3199
    Elsewhere:
    $3799
    (2)
    In Stock
    Ships today
  • Carl's Doomsday Scenario
    Join Carl and his ex-girlfriend's cat Princess Donut as they fight fantastical creatures and deadly mobs in the second book in the smash-hit Dungeon Crawler Carl series -now with bonus material exclusive to the print edition Now on the third floor, Carl and Donut have to fight harder than ever. They've already proven that a Coast Guard vet and once-and-forever...
    By Matt Dinniman
    Hardback
    $4699
    Elsewhere:
    $6000
    (1)
    In Stock
    Ships today
  • A Court of Thorns and Roses
    The first instalment of the GLOBAL PHENOMENON and TikTok sensation, from multi-million selling and #1 Sunday Times bestselling author Sarah J. Maas. Maas has established herself as a fantasy fiction titan – Time Harry Potter magic, Taylor Swift sass, Fifty Shades-level athleticism – The Sunday Times With bits of Buffy, Game of Thrones and Outlander, this is a glorious series...
    By Sarah J. Maas
    Paperback
    $2100
    Elsewhere:
    $2299
    (2)
    In Stock
    Ships today

Why buy from us?

Book Hero is not a chain store or big box retailer. We're an independent 100% NZ-owned business on a mission to help more Kiwis rediscover a love of books and reading!

Service & Delivery

Service & Delivery

Our warehouse in Auckland holds over 100,000 books, toys, board games and puzzles in-stock so you're not waiting for your order to arrive from overseas.

Auckland Bookstore

Auckland Bookstore

We're primarily an online store, but for your convenience you can pick up your order for free from our bookstore, which is right next door to our warehouse in Hobsonville.

Our Gifting Service

Our Gifting Service

Books make wonderful thoughtful gifts and we're here to help with gift-wrapping and cards. We can even send your gift directly to your loved one.

General Fiction lists from the team

Explore our curated lists from our heroes to find your next read!

The Latest at Book Hero

View all