On the Bus Without a Phone is the debut novel by London-based artist and illustrator Babak Ganjei that takes place over the course of a bus journey to a first date.
It 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.
This is an original, intelligent, surrealist, unashamedly comedic and ultimately moving work from a new writer described by his publishers as 'a [Richard] Brautigan for the digital age.'
Rough Trade Books, 148pp, 13cm x 17cm, paperback, 2026
