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Mao II

Book Hero Magic crafted this summary to help describe this book. While it's new and still learning, it may not be perfect - your feedback is welcome! Summary
Mao II by Don DeLillo follows Bill Gray, a famous novelist who leaves his reclusive life to participate in a politically charged event aimed at freeing a poet held hostage in Beirut. Through Bill's journey amid political violence and terrorism, the novel explores the tension between individual creativity and mass influence in a world where bomb-makers and gunmen seem to hold more sway than writers.
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Format: Paperback / softback
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Book Hero Magic created this recommendation. While it's new and still learning, it may not be perfect - your feedback is welcome! IS THIS YOUR NEXT READ?

This novel suits readers interested in literary fiction that delves into cultural influence, political conflict, and the role of artists in society.

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Reclusive writer Bill Gray escapes his failed novel into a world of political violence.

Reclusive writer Bill Gray escapes his failed novel into a world of political violence.

Book Hero Magic formatted this description to make it easier to read. While it's new and still learning, it may not be perfect - your feedback is welcome! Description

Winner of the PEN/Faulkner Award, Mao II is the work of an ingenious writer at the height of his powers.

Bill Gray, a famous, reclusive novelist, emerges from his isolation when he becomes the key figure in an event staged to force the release of a poet hostage in Beirut.

As Bill enters the world of political violence, a nightscape of Semtex explosives and hostages locked in basement rooms, Bill's dangerous passage leaves two people stranded: his brilliant, fixated assistant, Scott, and the strange young woman who is Scott's lover β€” and Bill's.

An extraordinary novel from Don DeLillo about words and images, novelists and terrorists, the mass mind and the arch-individualist, Mao II explores a world in which the novelist's power to influence the inner life of a culture now belongs to bomb-makers and gunmen.

Series: Picador Collection

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Book Hero Magic summarised reviews for this book. While it's new and still learning, it may not be perfect - your feedback is welcome! HOW HAS THIS BEEN REVIEWED?

Thomas Pynchon praises it as a "beauty" that ventures beyond daily history with a bold, eloquent, and morally focused voice. The Sunday Times describes it as a work of fiction both astonishingly fitting for contemporary times and rich in reward for understanding them.

Book Hero reading reviews

Book Details

INFORMATION

ISBN: 9781529092110

Publisher: Pan Macmillan

Format: Paperback / softback

Date Published: 24 November 2022

Country: United Kingdom

Imprint: Picador

Audience: General / adult

DIMENSIONS

Spine width: 17.0mm

Width: 129.0mm

Height: 197.0mm

Weight: 186g

Pages: 256

About the Author

Don DeLillo is the author of many bestselling novels, including Point Omega, Falling Man, White Noise, Libra, and Zero K, and has won many honours in America and abroad, including the National Book Award, the PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction, the Jerusalem Prize for his complete body of work and the William Dean Howells Medal from the American Academy of Arts and Letters for his novel Underworld. In 2010, he received the PEN/Saul Bellow Award. He has also written several plays.

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