{"product_id":"the-mark-and-the-void","title":"The Mark and the Void","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003e\"Impossibly ingenious, unabashedly intelligent, read-the-whole-page-again funny and engaged with the great questions of our times... [This] is the answer to the question of what a seriously talented contemporary novelist should be writing.\" \u003ci\u003eObserver\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eA comic masterpiece about love, art, greed and the banking crisis, from the author of \u003ci\u003eSkippy Dies\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e What links the Investment Bank of Torabundo, www.myhotswaitress.com (yes, \u003ci\u003ehots\u003c\/i\u003e with an s, don't ask), an art heist, a novel called For the Love of a Clown, a four-year-old boy named after TV detective Remington Steele, a lonely French banker, a tiny Pacific island, and a pest control business run by an ex-KGB man? You guessed it . . .\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003ci\u003eThe Mark and the Void\u003c\/i\u003e is Paul Murray's madcap new novel of institutional folly, following the success of his wildly original breakout hit, \u003ci\u003eSkippy Dies\u003c\/i\u003e. 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. But Paul's plan is not what it seems-and neither is Claude's employer, the Bank of Torabundo, which inflates through dodgy takeovers and derivatives-trading until-well, you can probably guess how that shakes out.\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003ci\u003eThe Mark and the Void\u003c\/i\u003e is 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.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cdiv class=\"sb-details\"\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eAuthor:\u003c\/strong\u003e \u003ca href=\"\/collections\/paul-murray-books\"\u003ePaul Murray\u003c\/a\u003e (all their books in stock)\u003cbr\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eFormat:\u003c\/strong\u003e Paperback\u003cbr\u003e\u003cstrong\u003ePublished:\u003c\/strong\u003e 2015\u003cbr\u003e\u003cstrong\u003ePages:\u003c\/strong\u003e 458\u003cbr\u003e\u003cstrong\u003ePublisher:\u003c\/strong\u003e Penguin Books\u003cbr\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eISBN:\u003c\/strong\u003e 9780241146668\u003c\/p\u003e\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"Penguin Books","offers":[{"title":"Poor Condition — £1.86","offer_id":47909728125105,"sku":"SB-0241146666-C4","price":1.86,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0618\/2669\/5345\/files\/0241146666.jpg?v=1789194488","url":"https:\/\/sellbooks.co.uk\/products\/the-mark-and-the-void","provider":"Sell Books .co.uk","version":"1.0","type":"link"}