The Mark and the Void
Format:Paperback
Publisher:Penguin Books Ltd
Published:4th Feb '16
Should be back in stock very soon

Idea for a novel- we have a banker rob his own bank . . .
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.
Winner of the Everyman Wodehouse Prize 2016
A comic masterpiece about love, art, greed and the banking crisis, by the Booker Prize-shortlisted author of The Bee Sting
‘Hugely entertainingly [and] read-the-whole-page-again funny . . . The best novel I have reviewed this side of the Atlantic’ Observer
Meet Claude: an investment-bank drone longing for something more meaningful. Marooned in soggy Dublin, he yearns for art, philosophy, and a steady girlfriend. You could call him a modern-day everyman – or just another lonely banker.
Now meet Paul: struggling novelist, strip-club enthusiast, pioneer of not-entirely-legal internet start-ups. Paul is willing to stoop to any level in pursuit of the riches he knows he deserves. You could call him a troubled genius – or a shameless crook.
Here are two men with something missing from their lives. they might just be able to help each other out of a big hole. Or their friendship might be the most disastrous thing to hit Dublin since the banking crash. As Paul’s get-rich-quick schemes blow up in his face, and the global economy goes missing in action, will Claude be able to save the day, get the girl, and finally become the hero of his own story?
‘Brilliant, intricately entertaining . . . This novel’s arrival deserves a trumpeting fanfare’ Sunday Independent
‘A comic classic from one of the most gifted novelists of his generation. Funny, angry and unputdownable’ Daily Express
Effervescent prose . . . [It] takes on the crackle of a thriller [and] wears its anger over the global financial crisis with a beguilingly, deceptively light touch * Metro *
People always tell me 'If you love Paul Murray so much, why don't you marry him?' Now thanks to recent legislation in his native Ireland, I finally can. And so should you, reader. The Mark and the Void not only monetizes the death of the novel, but makes us believe in its resurrection. Praise the Lord for Paul Murray's big brain and tender heart
The Mark and the Void is so 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
The Mark and the Void is just as funny [as Skippy Dies] , though perhaps with an even deeper sense of alienation at its heart * Independent *
Paul Murray has done the impossible: he's written a novel about international finance that is a hilarious page-turner with a beating human heart
The Mark and the Void is Murray's best book yet - a wildly ambitious, state-of-the-nation novel, and a scabrously funny yet deeply humane satire on the continuing fall-out of the biggest financial crisis in 75 years. Think Bonfire of the Vanities with a heart * The Bookseller *
- Winner of Bollinger Everyman Wodehouse Prize 2016
ISBN: 9780241953860
Dimensions: 198mm x 130mm x 29mm
Weight: 332g
480 pages