A Pynchonesque novel of legal and political intrigue, featuring mind-altering substances, shadowy power players, and the Central Court of the EU from the author of Remainder, Satin Island, and C.
Benjamin Stanton works in Luxembourg at the Central Court of the European Union, where cases to which existing law does not provide a remedy are directed and decided. He is what is called a referendaire. He digests the evidence and testimony submitted for the court’s consideration. He drafts the judgments and opinions that the court hands down. He is a man behind the scenes who as good as makes the law. And he is brilliant. For now he enjoys the power of anonymity, but he is, both his superiors and his colleagues recognize, destined to go far.
He has come a long way as is. An orphan, brought up in a series of foster homes, he went on to serve with the British army in Iraq, assigned to track down those weapons of mass destruction that had made the invasion imperative. No weapons were there to be found, of course, and Stanton came away from the war with scars to body and soul. An unexpected encounter at a conference will show very fragile he remains.
An exhilarating investigation, in the great tradition of Balzac and Pynchon, into the covert workings of money and power, The Rhyl Poster explores a world of masks and intrigue where shadowy players seek to manipulate the law to their own ends. It is a book about the elusive substance of the self, the burden of historical and individual guilt, and the elusive, but unignorable, call of justice. Tom McCarthy’s new novel is a work of high style, unsettling lyricism, and thrilling invention.
QUICK VIEW
