The Mark and the Void

What links the investment banking, art theft, www.myhotswaitress.com (yes, hots with an s, don't ask), a four-year-old boy named after TV detective Remington Steele, a Pacific island and a pest control business run by an ex-KGB agent? The Mark and the Voidis Paul Murray's madcap new novel of institutional folly, following the success of his wildly original breakout hit, Skippy Dies. Marooned in the damp and paradoxical realm known as Ireland, disillusioned banker Claude is approached by a down-on-his-luck author Paul, who's looking for his next great subject. Under Paul's fictionalizing influence, Claude finds life getting steadily more exciting, especially when a beautiful Greek waitress called Ariadne enters the picture. But Paul's plan is not what it seems - and neither is the Bank of Torabundo, Claude's employer, which swells through dodgy takeovers and derivatives trading until - well, you can guess how that shakes out. The Mark and the Voidis 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.