1
of
1
The Lowlife (Faber Editions)
'Terrific. Propulsive, funny and touching.' - Sebastian Faulks
Series: Faber Editions
Ratings/reviews counts are updated frequently.
Check link for latest rating. ( 23 ratings, 5 reviews)
Brief Description
"The day they moved in was a memorable one for me. Not because of them, for I couldn't know what they were to bring into my life, but because of a dog." Harryboy Boas is a gambling man. An independent Jewish bachelor, he lives in a...
Read More
Format: Paperback / softback
$2799
Unit price
/
Unavailable
AVAILABLE WITH SUPPLIER
Ships from our Auckland warehouse within 4-6 weeks
Found a better price? Request a price match
The Lowlife (Faber Editions)
$2799
Unit price
/
Unavailable
Latest News
The Hunger Games: Why it is one of the greatest YA series of all time
I absolutely LOVE ‘The Hunger Games’, and with ‘Sunrise on the Reaping’ arriving in New...
New Hero Alert! Meet Renee, Our New Warehouse Sidekick!
Meet Renee, one of the newest members of our Book Hero warehouse team! A keen...
The Story to Screen Report - 6/11/2026
It's another exciting week in the world of book-to-screen adaptations! From major casting announcements and...
The Lord of the Rings at Book Hero: There and Back Again… And Again
Our very first sale was an illustrated copy of The Hobbit, and our Tolkien collection...
A Little Bit of Magic: Building the Rolife Magic Fantasy Corner
There's nothing quite like spending an evening building a little bit of magic! Last weekend,...
See moreOne man gambles on not only the racing dogs but his life in this charismatic rediscovered Jewish post-war classic of London's seedy underbelly, introduced by Iain Sinclair.
One man gambles on the dogs and his own life in this rediscovered Jewish post-war classic of London's seedy underbelly, introduced by Iain Sinclair.
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
"The day they moved in was a memorable one for me. Not because of them, for I couldn't know what they were to bring into my life, but because of a dog."
Harryboy Boas is a gambling man. An independent Jewish bachelor, he lives in a Hackney boarding house: reading Zola, betting on the dogs at the track, womanising, philosophising, and repressing his tortured wartime past. Until, that is, a new family moves in. As his life dramatically unravels—financially, emotionally, and existentially—Harryboy descends into a murky criminal underworld where debts, violence, gangsters and revenge are the inevitable payback for those who can't pay up...
'Extraordinary.' William Boyd
Series: Faber Editions
View all-
Maud Martha (Faber Editions)
What, what, am I to do with all of this life? Maud Martha Brown is a little girl growing up on the South Side of 1940s Chicago. Amidst the crumbling taverns and overgrown yards, she dreams: of New York, romance, her future. She admires dandelions, learns to drink coffee, falls in love, decorates her kitchenette, visits the Jungly Hovel, guts...Paperback$2600Elsewhere:$2799Unit price /UnavailableAvailableShips in 4-6 weeks -
Neighbors and Other Stories (Faber Editions)
This breathtaking collection is a marvel ... One of my literary foremothers.' Tayari Jones 'Astute, brilliantly observed, these timeless stories are remarkable. It's all the more poignant to know the writer died at such a heartbreakingly young age:' Jackie Kay And she was becoming frightened too, looking at all those white faces pressed against the windowpanes. One Black family comes...Paperback$2600Elsewhere:$2799Unit price /UnavailableAvailableShips in 4-6 weeks -
Our Sister Killjoy (Faber Editions)
Our Sister Killjoy invites readers to join a young Ghanaian woman on her journey into Europe's heart of whiteness to meet the natives in this iconoclastic modern classic. 'A wondrous discovery.' – Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie 'A treasure: one of the works that inspired my own literary journey.' – Tsitsi Dangarembga 'Aidoo has reaffirmed my faith in the power of the...Paperback$2600Elsewhere:$2799Unit price /UnavailableAvailableShips in 4-6 weeks -
Termush (Faber Editions)
Introduced by Jeff VanderMeer, welcome to a luxury hotel at the end of the world in this post-apocalyptic 1967 dystopia. 'Chilling and prescient.' - Andrew Hunter Murray 'Elemental and true.' - Kiran Millwood Hargrave 'Mesmerizing ... Terrifyingly real.' - Sandra Newman 'Like someone from the future screaming to us.' - Salena Godden The day we came up from the shelters...Paperback$2600Elsewhere:$2799Unit price /UnavailableAvailableShips in 4-6 weeks -
The Shutter of Snow (Faber Editions)
Extraordinary. A fascinating and unexpected delight. Coleman shows how women might write if we were free - and how murderous we'd be. Lucy Ellmann Haunting and evocative, this is a timeless portrayal of madness, capturing the terror and loneliness of being untethered from reality. Catherine Cho The only thing to do is to put hammers in the porridge and when...Paperback$2600Elsewhere:$2799Unit price /UnavailableAvailableShips in 4-6 weeks -
A Wreath for Udomo (Faber Editions)
Those men who are history now; did they feel like this? A 1950s Hampstead pub; a freezing night. Lois can't tear her eyes away from the haunted, restless African man in the corner. Over brandy and stew, she discovers he is in awe of her friend, Panafrica's greatest political writer and fighter. Their meeting inducts this stranger, Udomo, into London's...Paperback$2799Unit price /UnavailableAvailableShips in 4-6 weeks -
The Glass Pearls (Faber Editions)
'This extraordinary novel had me hooked from start to finish, and left me with so much to brood on that I felt giddy... A fascinating, morally complex, deeply unsettling read.' -Sarah Waters 'A dark and harrowing window on the past: the ending will haunt your dreams. This is a novel that should never be forgotten again.' -Janice Hallett Nothing is...Paperback$2600Elsewhere:$2799Unit price /UnavailableAvailableShips in 4-6 weeks -
Hackenfeller's Ape (Faber Editions)
Pitch-perfect. - Ali Smith So original. - Hilary Mantel Stunning. - Isabel Waidner Her beastly, risky best. - Eley Williams When my species has destroyed itself, we may need yours to start it all again. In London Zoo, Professor Darrylhyde is singing to the apes again. Outside their cage, he watches the two animals, longing to observe the mating ritual...Paperback$2799Unit price /UnavailableAvailableShips in 4-6 weeks -
The Mountain Lion (Faber Editions)
One of the strangest and angriest novels of the twentieth century. - Lauren Groff An extraordinary, savage novel. - Olivia Laing I love this novel. - Patricia Lockwood She would not feel safe until the beautiful animal was dead. Ralph and Molly are inseparable siblings: united against the stupidity of daily routines, their prim mother and prissy older sisters, the...Paperback$2300Elsewhere:$2499Unit price /UnavailableAvailableShips in 4-6 weeks -
Queen (Faber Editions)
Lose yourself in this tumultuous Swedish family saga, introduced by Sarah Moss ('a masterpiece') In these parts, they called her Queen. And she was queen of rags, of sagging mouldering roofs, of nothing. On a bleak, windswept farm on the coast of rural Sweden, where the misty white light is as 'mute as the blind milk of membrane around an...Paperback$2799Unit price /UnavailableAvailableShips in 4-6 weeks -
Freezing Point (Faber Editions)
You don't own yourself any longer. Society owns you. Had it not been for society, you would not be lying here now. Bruno, a young magazine editor, seems to live a charmed life until he discovers a growth on his neck—the first sign of incurable cancer. However, his doctor offers him a unique opportunity: Bruno can choose to be 'frozen...Paperback$2799Unit price /UnavailableAvailableShips in 4-6 weeks -
The Ha-Ha (Faber Editions)
This lost classic coming-of-age tale is a tragicomic portrait of one young woman's university breakdown and recovery, introduced by Daisy Johnson. I wanted the knack of existing. I did not know the rules ... I wanted to tell them all about the animals, but would they understand? A tea party at an Oxford college. Earnest undergraduates in floral dresses clink...PaperbackSold Out
Book Details
INFORMATION
ISBN: 9780571393473
Publisher: Faber & Faber
Format: Paperback / softback
Date Published: 08 May 2025
Country: United Kingdom
Imprint: Faber & Faber
Edition: Main
Contributors:
- Introduction by Iain Sinclair
Audience: General / adult
DIMENSIONS
Width: 129.0mm
Height: 198.0mm
Weight: 250g
Pages: 256
About the Author
Alexander Baron (1917 - 1999) grew up in in Hackney, East London. The son of Jewish parents, he was drawn into the anti-fascist struggle, confronting Mosley's blackshirts on the streets of Whitechapel. He became assistant editor of Tribune before enlisting in the army in 1940 and fighting in Italy, Sicily and across France from the Normandy D-Day beaches. His experiences during the Second World War gave him the material for his first novel, From the City, From the Plough (1948), the first in his celebrated wartime trilogy. He wrote several novels set in London's East End as well as Hollywood screenplays and BBC adaptations of classic novels. Carl Foreman's great war film The Victors (1963) was adapted from Baron's The Human Kind (1953). He died in 1999.
More from General Fiction
View all-
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...Paperback$2999Elsewhere:$3699Unit price /UnavailableIn StockShips Monday -
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 –...Paperback$2899Elsewhere:$3499Unit price /UnavailableIn StockShips Monday -
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...Paperback$2399Elsewhere:$2799Unit price /UnavailableIn StockShips Monday -
New ReleaseA Court of Splintered Harmony
Romance, danger, and intrigue await you in the breathtaking sixth book in the #1 bestselling Court of Thorns and Roses (ACOTAR) series.What was broken will be remade.Deep in the heart of the continent, Koschei the Deathless is stirring. Though he's been bound to a mountain lake for millennia, the insidious threat of his return now spreads across the Fae territories,...Paperback$3199Elsewhere:$3699Unit price /UnavailableIn StockShips Monday -
New ReleaseThreshing Day
The next book in the blockbuster Empyrean series, Threshing Day contains thirteen stories starring your favorite characters and their dragons. The deluxe first edition includes sixteen beautiful original full-color illustrations by artist Joe Requeza. Rebecca Yarros is the #1 New York Times, USA Today, and Wall Street Journal bestselling author of over twenty novels, including Fourth Wing and In the...Hardback$6999Unit price /UnavailableIn StockShips Monday -
Throne of Glass Box Set (Paperback)
Enter the realm. Unleash the darkness. Live the legend. Discover the worldwide phenomenon of the #1 New York Times-bestselling Throne of Glass series in this gorgeous 8-book box set! In a land without magic, an assassin is summoned to the castle. She has no love for the vicious king who rules from his throne of glass, but she has not...Set$12400Elsewhere:$15500Unit price /UnavailableIn StockShips Monday -
Assassin’s Apprentice
Assassin's Apprentice by Robin Hobb marks the beginning of an extraordinary adventure in the rich and immersive world of the Six Duchies. Set against the backdrop of a kingdom teetering on the brink of civil war, this gripping tale introduces readers to FitzChivalry Farseer, a royal bastard whose existence threatens the stability of the crown. When the crown prince's secret...Paperback$1900Elsewhere:$2299Unit price /UnavailableIn StockShips Monday -
A Court of Thorns and Roses Paperback Box Set (5 books)
All five of the Court of Thorns and Roses paperbacks packaged together in a gorgeous box set. "Passionate, violent, sexy and daring." —USA TODAY on A Court of Thorns and Roses Feyre is a huntress. The skin of a wolf would bring enough gold to feed her sisters for a month. But the life of a magical creature comes at...Set$9999Elsewhere:$12495Unit price /UnavailableIn StockShips Monday -
John of John
The stunning new novel from the Booker Prize-winning, Sunday Times-bestselling author of Shuggie Bain and Young Mungo.'John of John has the emotional range and sense of sympathy of his earlier books, but this book is special, it has an urgency, an immediacy, a brilliant sense of place, the drama of fierce emotion repressed, concealed and volcanically exposed' - Colm Tóibín'To read John of John is to move to...Paperback$3099Elsewhere:$3800Unit price /UnavailableIn StockShips Monday -
New ReleaseChain Reaction
Jack Reacher, \"the coolest continuing series character\" (Stephen King), returns in a brand new, pulse-pounding read from Lee and Andrew Child. The world’s bestselling hero is back in a brand new, high-octane adventure! ‘She knew that finding Reacher would not be easy . . .’ Washington DC. General Susan Turner needs help from the only guy she knows will get...Paperback$2999Elsewhere:$3800Unit price /UnavailableIn StockShips Monday -
A Court of Wings and Ruin
The third instalment of the GLOBAL PHENOMENON, romantic fantasy epic and TikTok sensation, ACOTAR. From multi-million and #1 Sunday Times bestselling author Sarah J. Maas. In A Court of Wings and Ruin, the gripping third book of the ACOTAR series, Feyre Archeron faces the ultimate battle for her world. Having returned to the Spring Court, she is determined to gather...Paperback$2100Elsewhere:$2299Unit price /UnavailableIn StockShips Monday -
The Things We Never Say
Internationally bestselling and prize-winning author Elizabeth Strout's new novel tells the story of a chance incident in a man's life—a poignant meditation on loneliness, friendship, and free will in a capsizing world. Artie Dam is a man with a secret. He spends his days teaching history to high schoolers, expanding their young minds, correcting their casual cruelties, and lending a...Hardback$3200Elsewhere:$3800Unit price /UnavailableIn StockShips Monday
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
Our warehouse in Auckland holds over 190,000 books, toys, board games and puzzles in-stock so you're not waiting for your order to arrive from overseas.
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
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!
-
![]()
![]()
![]()
Lizzy's listGeneral Fiction
Fiction about Fathers
Here are some incredible stories that explore various angles of fatherhood and father figures in the most poignant and wonderful ways. Featuring...View the list -
![]()
![]()
![]()
Lizzy's listGeneral Fiction
What to read now you've watched The Odyssey
Contemporary fiction, classical non-fiction, feminist retellings, and inspired stories that would make for an interesting read now that you're obsessed with The...View the list -
![]()
![]()
![]()
Kevin's listGeneral Fiction
The Odyssey & Trojan War Classics (and Retellings)
Long before Christopher Nolan turned it into a blockbuster in the summer of 2026, The Odyssey was the original epic. After a...View the list -
![Tsubaki Stationery Store]()
![]()
![]()
Lizzy's listGeneral Fiction
Have You Tried ... Healing Fiction
Healing Fiction is a relatively new genre still finding it's place, and yet people are reaching for it without realizing, desperate for...View the list -
![]()
![]()
![]()
Lizzy's listGeneral Fiction
Lizzy's Favourite Picks for Winter Reading
These are the books that Lizzy loves to read in Winter, or that feel like Winter. A combination of fiction, some non-fiction,...View the list -
![]()
![]()
![]()
Shirl's listGeneral Fiction
Shirl's Favourite Books of 2026
The first half of 2026 has been packed with brilliant books, making it hard to choose favourites but here are a few...View the list -
![]()
![]()
![]()
Lizzy's listGeneral Fiction
Books to Escape a Reading Slump
A reading slump can be a frustrating feeling and hard to break out of, but we've gathered together a list of crowd...View the list -
![]()
![]()
![Star Shipped]()
Lizzy's listGeneral Fiction
Lizzy's Pride Fiction Picks!
June marks Global Pride Month so in case you're looking for your next great fiction read, here's a list of some of...View the list -
![]()
![]()
![]()
Lizzy's listGeneral Fiction
Readers’ Top 100 Novels of All Time - from The Guardian
There was some controversy when The Guardian released their critics and authors list of the top 100 novels of all time, but...View the list -
![]()
![]()
![]()
Lizzy's listGeneral Fiction
Seasonal Reads - 10 Books for Autumn
If you haven't tried seasonal reading, Lizzy thinks you should. It's a way to romanticizing the current season rather than trying to...View the list -
![]()
![]()
![]()
Hannah's listGeneral Fiction
Gothic Reads for Dark Nights
With the advent of movie adaptations like Wuthering Heights and Frankenstein, it looks like pop culture is seeing a revival of the...View the list -
![]()
![]()
![]()
General Fiction
The 2026 Ockham New Zealand Book Winners
Celebrate all the winners of the 2026 Ockham New Zealand Book Awards. Explore the powerful fiction of Ingrid Horrocks' 'All Her Lives',...View the list
