Go on, treat yourself——you only live once! Get all three absolute banging pieces of work that we've published by the one and only BABAK GANJEI in one bundle...
ROUGH TRADE EDITIONS No.6 - FILM IDEAS
After getting a retweet from American comedian Rob Delaney regarding his own fart joke (something Rob Delaney may well not remember) Babak Ganjei woke up to find a number of film producers from Los Angeles following him. Sensing an opportunity somewhere, anywhere, over the next five years Babak used Twitter to pitch film ideas, sadly to no avail. While ill and housebound Babak started to write them down in analogue form and discovered an audience waiting for his films.
In Film Ideas, artist Babak Ganjei presents his hallucinatory set of film pitches as both a comic lampoon of Hollywood tropes and a classic example of outsider-self-expression. Extremely funny and shot through with Ganjei’s singular world-view. Film Ideas brilliantly exposes our thin, absurd media culture.
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ROUGH TRADE EDITION NO.46 - ART IS THE THING NOBODY ASKED YOU TO DO
In a series of humorous, wry and deceptively wise reflections, Babak Ganjei presents us with a radical new take on the artists’ manifesto. Examining motivation, inspiration and influence, these deft pieces of prose flesh out the internal life of a working artist right now. In Art is The Thing Nobody Asked You To Do, Ganjei attempts to make sense of why he does the things he does, and tries to convince himself it’s ok for it to work out.
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ON THE BUS WITHOUT A PHONE
“I read On the Bus… on the bus, howling with laughter and wishing the man sitting next to me was Bob—its wonderful hero—so I could turn to him and tell him how much I love him. Babak Ganjei’s book is a tenderhearted, hilarious thing of beauty. I laughed so much I’ve been banned from public transport.” —Jeff Young
“A thousand times more enjoyable than the average bus ride, Ganjei’s misfit wit and flashes of insight turn this everyday trip into a vivid dissection of the digisphere’s illusion of connection, and all the pleasure and pain of its often less-than-sufficient remedy: reality.” —Richard Milward
“Whimsical, but deep, joyful but profound. A striking debut novel—poignant writing that delivers a punch.”—Lou Sanders
“Weirdly relatable, endlessly bleak, and laugh out loud funny.”—James Acaster
“The most triggering book title of the 2020s. On the Bus Without a Phone is an absurd odyssey from a true one-off comedic genius. I ❤️ BG.”—Jack Rooke
“Like being invited inside the mind of the lunatic sat next to you on the bus... and realising that he has the charming, broken soul of a kitchen-sink poet.”—Drew Pearce
“Magnificent—of course.”—Sophie Heawood
“Poetic prose, moving and funny.”—Beth Orton
“Funny, tangential and melancholic. Babak Ganjei is a pleasure to read.”—Sheena Patel
Taking place over the course of a bus journey en route to a first date, BABAK GANJEI’S debut novel charts the seemingly infinite disappointments, misunderstandings and humiliations that have piled up over the course of narrator Bob Green’s life to date. Bob’s immediate circumstances, and the cast of characters with which he shares them, provide the imaginative jumping off point for digressions on teenage love, suburban ennui, pornography, race and identity, mobile phones, Converse, adult love, fatherhood, fast food, MF DOOM, the etiquette of bus seating and, perhaps most importantly of all, The Remains of the Day.
On the Bus Without A Phone is a dazzlingly intelligent, unashamedly comedic and ultimately moving work from a hugely original new writer. With his surrealist flair, world-weary melancholy and self-effacing humour, Ganjei is a Brautigan for the digital age.