C

By: Tom McCarthy

Narrated by: Stephen Hoye

C follows the short, intense life of Serge Carrefax, a man who – as his name suggests – surges into the electric modernity of the early 20th century, transfixed by the technologies that will obliterate him.

Born to the sound of one of the very earliest experimental wireless stations, Serge finds himself steeped in a weird world of transmissions, whose very air seems filled with cryptic and poetic signals of all kinds. When personal loss strikes him in his adolescence, this world takes on a darker and more morbid aspect. What follows is a stunning tour de force in which the eerily idyllic settings of pre-war Europe give way to the exhilarating flight-paths of the frontline aeroplane radio operator, then the prison camps of Germany, the drug-fuelled London of the roaring 20s and, finally, the ancient tombs of Egypt.

Reminiscent of Bolaño, Beckett, and Pynchon, this is a remarkable novel - a compelling, sophisticated, and sublimely imaginative book uncovering the hidden codes and dark rhythms that sustain life.

©2010 Tom McCarthy (P)2010 Random House Audiobooks