Mark and the Void The

Product Description

What links the Investment Bank of Torabundo, www.myhotswaitress.com (yes, hots with an s, don't ask), an art heist, a novel called For Love of a Clown, a four-year-old boy named after TV detective Remington Steele, a lonely French banker, a tiny Pacific island, and a pest control business run by an ex-KGB man? You guessed it . . .

The Mark and the Void is Paul Murray's madcap new novel of institutional folly, following the success of his wildly original breakout hit, Skippy Dies. While marooned at his banking job in the bewilderingly damp and insular realm known as Ireland, Claude Martingale is approached by a down-on-his-luck author, Paul, looking for his next great subject. Claude finds that his life gets steadily more exciting under Paul's fictionalizing influence; he even falls in love with a beautiful waitress. But Paul's plan is not what it seems - and neither is Claude's employer, the Bank of Torabundo, which inflates through dodgy takeovers and derivatives trading until - well, you can probably guess how that shakes out.

The Mark and the Void is a stirring examination of the deceptions carried out in the names of art, love and commerce - and is also probably the funniest novel ever written about a financial crisis.

'This is the answer to the question of what a serious and seriously talented contemporary novelist should be writing . . . The Mark and the Void is the best novel I have reviewed this side of the Atlantic.' Observer

'A hilarious, blade-sharp satire on the banking system . . . once again, the funniest book I've read so far this year. A joy from start to finish.' Independent

'The Mark and the Void is sensationally good . . . It takes the global financial crisis by its throat, and shakes it into giving birth to a wild, intelligent, angry, witty, uproariously funny, devastating novel.' Neel Mukherjee

'A coruscating comic novel . . . what Dave Eggers did for social media in The Circle, Murray does for global banking in The Mark and the Void...and he does it with laughs, plenty of laughs.' The Times

'Paul Murray has produced a comic classic that cements his status as one of the most gifted novelists of his generation. Funny, angry and unputdownable.' Daily Express