The Mark and the Void: A Novel (10th Anniversary Edition)

From the bestselling author of The Bee Sting comes the 10th anniversary edition of his hilarious second novel, featuring a marvelous new cover design.

 

The Mark and the Void is Paul Murray’s madcap novel of institutional folly, filled to the brim with his characteristic hilarity and profundity, revealed to the world in the breakout hit Skippy Dies. 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 Investment Bank of Torabundo, which swells through dodgy takeovers and derivatives trading until—well, you can probably guess how that shakes out.

The Mark and the Void is the funniest novel ever written about the 2008 financial crisis, and a stirring examination of the deceptions carried out in the names of art and commerce.