Viral

An irresistible, razor-sharp and hilarious takedown of our generation’s masters of the universe. * Olivia Sudjic *A fiercely smart and funny portrayal of tech arrogance, unhinged entrepreneurship, and the vacuous amorality of disruptive startup culture. Viral is a vicious delight. – Sam ByersI loved Matthew Sperling’s sly, subversive novel, a wickedly funny tale of how to come out on top in a fake news world. – Olivia Laing, on ASTROTURFOutrageous, sexy and funny. Sperling writes with the caustic economy of Waugh or Spark, but his characters have more heart, including the sock-puppets. The plot is so taut I’m still re-reading it trying to work out exactly how he brings the tension of a heist movie to 30-something bedsit London, all the while deliciously subverting our expectations. A joy to read – Luke Kennard, on ASTROTURFThemes of warped masculinity, identity, survival and the pursuit of perfection are all vividly rendered … a brawn cocktail that nails the zeitgeist. * Irish Times on ASTROTURF *Simultaneously funny and dead accurate * Sunday Telegraph *A pacey, dark dive into the morality of tech. It plays artfully on the subtle tropes of social media gurus and Silicon Valley bros without being obvious. Rather than being a parallel to Twitter discourse, it’s a cathartic answer to it * New Statesman *The deft assurance of Sperling’s writing… an engaging takedown of the social media startup scene and the moral ambivalence of its characters * Lunate *

Matthew Sperling was born in Kent in 1982. He lives in London and is a lecturer in English Literature at UCL. His writing has been published in the Guardian, the New Statesman, 1983, Prospect, 3:AM, The Junket, and Best Britsish Short Stories 2015. His debut novel, Astroturf, was longlisted for the Wellcome Book Prize 2019.

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