B.S. Johnson's lost classic has been showered with praise: <em>New York Magazine</em> named <em>The Unfortunates</em> one of their Ten Best Books of 2008, listed in <em>The New York Times</em> 100 Notable Books of 2008, and <em>The Los Angeles Times</em> declared it to be “his most daring work.” <br /><br />A legendary 1960s experiment in form, <em>The Unfortunates</em> is B. S. Johnson's famous “book in a box,” in which the chapters are presented unbound, to be read in any order the reader chooses. A sportswriter, sent to a Midlands town on a weekly assignment, finds himself confronted by ghosts from the past when he disembarks at the train station. Memories of one of his best, most trusted friends, a tragically young victim of cancer, begin to flood through his mind as he attempts to go about the routine business of reporting a soccer match. <br /><em><br />The Unfortunates</em> is a book of passionate honesty and dark, courageous humor: a meditation on death and a celebration of friendship which also offers a remarkably frank self-portrait of its author.