Joe Stretch was born in 1982 and brought up in Lancashire. He moved to Manchester at the age of 18 to study politics at Manchester University. His band, Performance, in which he is lead singer and lyricist, released their debut album in 2007. Friction is his first novel.
Joe Stretch is such an original writer it's pointless to compare him to anyone, yet his black humour, sardonic tone and sheer readability suggest that Anthony Burgess is alive and well and still living in Manchester. This is A Clockwork Orange for the 21st century -- Nicholas Royle Like Houellebecq for generation WHY Ewan Morrison Raw, wild, aflame with ideas, Friction will bring a cure-or-kill medicinal shock to our post-boom hangover -- Boyd Tonkin Independent Transports the dystopian sexuality of Michel Houellebecq to the throbbing bars of Manchester, where a gaggle of characters numb their morality in pursuit of the ultimate orgasm. Satirically imagining a bleakly banal world of rampant consumerism and pregnancy as the final, putrid fetish, Friction snarls, spits and crackles like an anti Sex and the City or Kafka with cum-shots ID magazine A sharp and intense world created by a radical new writer -- Xiaolu Guo