The Business
Format:Paperback
Publisher:Little, Brown Book Group
Published:6th Jun '13
Should be back in stock very soon
* Contemporary - and how! - novel by 'the most imaginative British novelist of his generation' - The Times
'A poisoned bonbon, a bitter fairy tale' Independent
Kate Telman is a senior executive officer in The Business, a powerful and massively discreet transglobal organisation. Financially transparent, internally democratic and disavowing conventional familial inheritance, the character of The Business seems, even to Kate, to be vague to the point of invisibility. It possesses, allegedly, a book of Leonardo cartoons, several sets of Crown Jewels and wants to buy its own State in order to acquire a seat at the United Nations.
Kate's job is to keep abreast of current technological developments and her global reach encompasses Silicon Valley, a ranch in Nebraska, the firm's secretive Swiss headquarters, and a remote Himalayan principality. In the course of her journey Kate must peel away layers of emotional insulation and the assumptions of a lifetime. She must learn to keep her world at arm's length. To take control, she has to do The Business.
Praise for Iain Banks:
'The most imaginative novelist of his generation' The Times
'His verve and talent will always be recognised, and his work will always find and enthral new readers' Ken MacLeod, Guardian
'His work was mordant, surreal, and fiercely intelligent' Neil Gaiman
'An exceptional wordsmith' Scotsman
A poisoned bonbon, a bitter fairy tale... Written with enormous energy, crunchy wit and more curves than an alpine road * Independent *
A highly inventive piece of work, amusing and sinister by turns... crammed with arresting conceits and surprises... any chapter of The Business, picked at random, will give an idea of Iain Bank's merits: the technical pizzazz, the profound compassion, above all an understanding of the way the world works ripe to confound the average English novelist who thinks that 'science' is simply a noisy irrelevance * Guardian *
It is impressive to find a British writer with such evident range... intellectually exhilarating * Observer *
Imagination, wit and complexity are Banks' hallmarks and The Business is no exception * The Times *
Eng. Lit. for the age of www * Independent on Sunday *
ISBN: 9780349139227
Dimensions: 199mm x 141mm x 27mm
Weight: 272g
400 pages