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.