After his debut novel explored how technology ruined newspapers, Tom Rachman has published his first Kindle Single. “The Bathtub Spy” will sell for $1.99, following the story of “a middle-aged intelligence bureaucrat and his odd relationship with his boss.”
In The Imperfectionists, Rachman wrote about a scrappy crew of expat reporters working on a dying newspaper in Rome. As they worry about losing their jobs, different characters meditate on how the Internet has changed the writing profession.
Here’s an excerpt from his debut novel: “Technology was not merely luring readers; it was changing them. Full printed pages didn’t fit onto monitors, so portion size shrank, dicing news into ever-smaller morsels. Instant updates on the Internet bred contempt for day-old headlines in ink. Even the habit of exchanging money for information dwindled—online, payment was merely an option.”