Getting some static seeking this Radio novel...

June 30, 2013 12:32 AM

A few years back, in a dusty Brooklyn used book store I found, purchased, and subsequently lost a novel I've been unable to track down since.

I recall that "Radio" was in the title, and the protagonist broadcast a semi-pirate show out of a radio themed bar/coffeehouse for a somewhat secret group of enthusiasts. A subplot of the novel concerned an undercover female police officer infiltrating a street gang. The whole thing took place in a heavily fictionalized New England metropolis, Boston in all but name.

The prose style was a bit formal and convoluted for a mass-market paperback, and the feel of the setting was not quite dystopian science fiction, but rather a slightly skewed version of our reality.

I believe the author's first name was John.

I've beat my head against the walls of Google and Amazon, to no avail. Anyone got a clue?

posted by erskelyne to Writing & Language (4 answers total)

Best answer: Radio isn't in the title, but it sounds lot like Wireless by Jack O'Connell. If that is it, his other books are great, too. Box Nine was the first book of his I read and it blew my mind.

Whether or not this is the book you're looking for, answering has just made me realize his books are now available on Kindle, so thanks for that!
posted by Bresciabouvier at 1:33 AM on June 30, 2013 [1 favorite]

It's not ticking all your boxes but could it be Radio Free Albemuth by Philip K Dick?
posted by ninazer0 at 1:33 AM on June 30, 2013

Oh, and if it is Wireless, the city (Quinsigamond) is actually a fictionalized version of Worcester, where the author is from.
posted by Bresciabouvier at 1:40 AM on June 30, 2013 [1 favorite]

Response by poster: Ha! Got it in one, Bresciabouvier! Thank you so much, it had been annoying me for some time now, and thanks to the vagaries of memory, I was getting the details just this side of right.
posted by erskelyne at 2:08 AM on June 30, 2013