Toby Litt has been widely billed both as one of the best new writers of his generation and as one of its most accomplished chroniclers. The media has variously dubbed him "one of the foremost young lions of British hip-lit," as Maxim Jakubowski termed him in The Guardian (5 February 2000); "one of the leading voices of the young Brit-lit pack," according to Dominic Bradbury in the 17 February 2001 issue of The Times (London); and, in a 26 May 1996 roundup of "Young British Talent" in The Independent on Sunday (London), Emma Cook called him "the most exciting young talent on the literary scene."

Litt first became known for his witty, postmodern deconstructions of modern life, replete with references to the materiality of contemporary British society. In a literary marketplace often criticized for being awash with sprawling historical novels, this contemporaneity is perhaps one of the reasons Litt has acquired such prominence and...