Hari Kunzru – författare

A sweeping, colourful adventure from the acclaimed author of White TearsDiscover Hari Kunzru's smash-hit debut novelThis is the extraordinary story of a child conceived in a wild monsoon night, a boy destined to be an outsider, a man with many names and no name.Born into luxury but disinherited and cast out onto the streets of Agra, Pran Nath must become a chameleon. Chasing his fortune, he will travel from the red light district of Bombay to the green lawns of England to the unmapped African wilderness. He will play many different roles -- a young prize in a brothel, the adopted son of Scottish missionaries, the impeccably educated young Englishman headed for Oxford -- in order to find the role that will finally fit.Daring and riotously inventive, The Impressionist is an odyssey of self-discovery: a tale of the many lives one man can live and of the universal search for true identity.

Hari Kunzru's Transmission is a witty novel about cyberspace, a Bollywood dancer and a world where everyone is connected.It's the twenty-first century, and everything and everyone is connected.Meet Arjun Mehta, an Indian cybergeek catapulted into California's spiralling hi-tech sector; Leela Zahir, beguiling Bollywood actress filming in the midge-infested Scottish wilds; and Guy Swift, hyped-up marketing exec lost in a blue-sky tomorrow of his own devising. Three dislocated individuals seeking nodes of connectivity - a place to fit in. Yet this is the twenty-first century, and their lives are about to become unexpectedly entangled as a virus spreads, and all their futures are rewired. But will it take them further from their dreams, or closer to their hearts?'An aphoristic joke, a neat turn of phrase; a joke that makes you laugh . . . there's nothing Kunzru couldn't manage in prose. Thoroughly engrossing' Literary Review'Funny, heartfelt and beautifully written, confirms Kunzru as one of the most talented writers of his generation' Image'Very enjoyable, I couldn't put it down. Funny and wry; it is deftly plotted; its characters intimately drawn. Blissful' Observer'Utterly affecting, a novel with devastating satirical bite' Financial TimesHari Kunzru is the author of the novels The Impressionist, Transmission, My Revolutions and Gods Without Men, and the story collection Noise. He lives in New York.

Gods Without Men is Hari Kunzru's epic novel of intertwined lives and a vast expanse of American desert.In the Californian desert . . .A four-year-old boy goes missing.A British rock star goes quietly mad.An alien-worshipping cult is born.An Iraqi teenager takes part in a war game.In a remote town, near a rock formation known as The Pinnacles, lives intertwine, stories echo, and the universal search for meaning and connection continues.'Kunzru's great American novel' Independent'Readers speak of it in hushed tones as conveying the secrets of the universe' Newsday'Extraordinary, smart, innovative, a revelation. Has the counterculture feel of a late-1960s US campus hit - something by Vonnegut or Pynchon or Wolfe. Genuinely interesting and exhilarating. Extremely enjoyable' Guardian'Astonishing, mind-blowing. One of the most original novels I've read in years' Counterpunch'One of the most socially observant and skilful novelists around. Consistently gripping and entertaining' Literary Review'A great sprawling narrative, as vast as the canvas on which it is written' Washington Post'Reverberates long after you finish reading it' New YorkerHari Kunzru is the author of the novels The Impressionist, Transmission, My Revolutions and Gods Without Men, and the story collection Noise. He lives in New York.

An adventure brimming with colour, energy and humour -- the acclaimed debut novel from the author of White TearsThis is the extraordinary story of a child conceived in a wild monsoon night, a boy destined to be an outsider, a man with many names and no name.Born into luxury but disinherited and cast out onto the streets of Agra, Pran Nath must become a chameleon. Chasing his fortune, he will travel from the red light district of Bombay to the green lawns of England to the unmapped African wilderness. He will play many different roles -- a young prize in a brothel, the adopted son of Scottish missionaries, the impeccably educated young Englishman headed for Oxford -- in order to find the role that will finally fit.Daring and riotously inventive, The Impressionist is an odyssey of self-discovery: a tale of the many lives one man can live and of the universal search for true identity.

Hari Kunzru's Transmission is a witty novel about cyberspace, a Bollywood dancer and a world where everyone is connected.It's the twenty-first century, and everything and everyone is connected.Meet Arjun Mehta, an Indian cybergeek catapulted into California's spiralling hi-tech sector; Leela Zahir, beguiling Bollywood actress filming in the midge-infested Scottish wilds; and Guy Swift, hyped-up marketing exec lost in a blue-sky tomorrow of his own devising. Three dislocated individuals seeking nodes of connectivity - a place to fit in. Yet this is the twenty-first century, and their lives are about to become unexpectedly entangled as a virus spreads, and all their futures are rewired. But will it take them further from their dreams, or closer to their hearts?'An aphoristic joke, a neat turn of phrase; a joke that makes you laugh . . . there's nothing Kunzru couldn't manage in prose. Thoroughly engrossing' Literary Review'Funny, heartfelt and beautifully written, confirms Kunzru as one of the most talented writers of his generation' Image'Very enjoyable, I couldn't put it down. Funny and wry; it is deftly plotted; its characters intimately drawn. Blissful' Observer'Utterly affecting, a novel with devastating satirical bite' Financial TimesHari Kunzru is the author of the novels The Impressionist, Transmission, My Revolutions and Gods Without Men, and the story collection Noise. He lives in New York.

It’s the day before Mike Frame’s fiftieth birthday and his quiet provincial life is suddenly falling apart. But perhaps it doesn’t matter, because it’s not his life in the first place. He has a past that his partner Miranda and step-daughter Sam know nothing about, lived under another name amidst the turbulence of the revolutionary armed struggle of the 1970s. Now Mike is seeing ghosts – a dead ex-lover and an old friend who wants to reminisce. Mike can no longer ignore the contradiction between who he is and who he once was. Which side was he on back then? And which side is he on now?

Gods Without Men is Hari Kunzru's epic novel of intertwined lives and a vast expanse of American desert.In the Californian desert . . .A four-year-old boy goes missing.A British rock star goes quietly mad.An alien-worshipping cult is born.An Iraqi teenager takes part in a war game.In a remote town, near a rock formation known as The Pinnacles, lives intertwine, stories echo, and the universal search for meaning and connection continues.'Kunzru's great American novel' Independent'Readers speak of it in hushed tones as conveying the secrets of the universe' Newsday'Extraordinary, smart, innovative, a revelation. Has the counterculture feel of a late-1960s US campus hit - something by Vonnegut or Pynchon or Wolfe. Genuinely interesting and exhilarating. Extremely enjoyable' Guardian'Astonishing, mind-blowing. One of the most original novels I've read in years' Counterpunch'One of the most socially observant and skilful novelists around. Consistently gripping and entertaining' Literary Review'A great sprawling narrative, as vast as the canvas on which it is written' Washington Post'Reverberates long after you finish reading it' New YorkerHari Kunzru is the author of the novels The Impressionist, Transmission, My Revolutions and Gods Without Men, and the story collection Noise. He lives in New York.

'A stunning, audacious new thriller... It will shock you, horrify you, unsettle you, and that's exactly the point. As brave as it is brutal, it lets nothing and nobody off the hook' NPR'A book that everyone should be reading right now' TIME New Yorkers Carter and Seth chop up old music to make it new again, ripping off black culture to line white pockets. They are young, hungry and talented. But one day they stumble on an old blues song - an undiscovered gem just waiting to be found - and land themselves in a heap of trouble.Seeking answers, Seth travels deep into the heart of the old South, accompanied by Carter's bewitching sister Leonie. But this is America, where ghosts lie uneasy in shallow graves and tugging one loose thread can unravel a bloody history of injustice. And the closer Seth gets to the haunting truth, the more he feels pursued . . .White Tears is a nail-biting ride through the terrifying spectre of America's past. It's about black lives and white privilege and the music that runs through the country's veins like blood.

'Like Donna Tartt's The Goldfinch... A stunning novel of ideas that becomes a page-turning thriller... ' Stylist'A fast-paced, ambitious, hallucinatory mystery' Publishers WeeklyA dizzying, nail-biting ghost story about modern America from the bestselling author of The ImpressionistTwo twenty-something New Yorkers: Seth, awkward and shy, and Carter, the trust fund hipster. They have one thing in common: an obsession with music. Rising fast on the New York producing scene, they stumble across an old blues song long forgotten by history -- and everything starts to unravel. Carter is drawn far down a path that allows no return, and Seth has no choice but to follow his friend into the darkness.Electrifying, subversive and wildly original, White Tears is a ghost story and a love story, a story about lost innocence and historical guilt. This unmissable novel penetrates the heart of a nation's darkness, encountering a suppressed history of greed, envy, revenge and exploitation, and holding a mirror up to the true nature of America today.

In a networked world, anything can change n an instant, and sometimes everything does.... Transmission, Hari Kunzru''s new novel of love and lunacy, immigration and immunity, introduces a daydreaming Indian computer geek whose luxurious fantasies about life in America are shaken when he accepts a California job offer. Lonely and nave, Arjun Mehta spends his days as a lowly assistant virus tester and pining away for his free-spirited colleague Christine. Arjun gets laid-off like so many of his Silicon Valley peers. In an act of desperation to keep his job, he releases a mischievous but destructive virus around the globe that has major unintended consequences. As world order unravels, so does Arjun''s sanity, in a rollicking cataclysm that reaches Bollywood and, not so coincidentally, the glamorous star of Arjun''s favorite Indian movie. Award-winning novelist Hari Kunzru was hailed as a "modern-day Kipling," for his bestselling debut, The Impressionist. With this exuberant follow-up, Kunzru takes an ultracontemporary turn in a stylish, playful, and wicked exploration of life at the click of a mouse.

From one of the sharpest voices in fiction today, a profound and enthralling novel about beauty, power, and capital's influence on art and those who devote their lives to creating it.'Blue Ruin is bracingly intelligent and often just plain beautiful. It’s a reminder that fiction, at its best, is a place to encounter new experiences and dwell in big ideas. Kunzru is known for ambitious novels that bring politics to rich, imaginative life; Blue Ruin shows him at the top of his game.' Sandra Newman, Guardian 'Book of the Day''I read everything Hari Kunzru writes, for my highest pleasure and my deepest sustenance.' Rachel Kushner'Genuinely thrilling...both a sharp dissection of the oily inner workings of the art world, and a compelling portrait of one man’s desperate attempt to escape complicity in the capitalist machine.' Financial TimesOnce Jay was tipped for greatness, a rising star of the London art scene. Now, he lives out of his car and earns money delivery groceries to the wealthy of upstate New York, while all around a terrible pandemic rages.  When Jay arrives at a house set in an enormous acreage of woodland, he is shocked to see somebody he thought forever lost to him. Standing on the porch is Alice, a lover from his art school days. Their relationship was tumultuous and destructive, ultimately ending when she left him for his best friend and fellow artist Rob. Alice and Rob have achieved the riches and success for which Jay once seemed destined. Ashamed and debilitated by the virus that has ravaged his body, Jay hopes she won't recognise him behind his dirty surgical mask. When she does, however, she invites him to recover on the property, setting in motion a reckoning decades in the making.  Gripping and brilliantly orchestrated, Blue Ruin moves back and forth through time to deliver an extraordinary portrait of an artist as he reunites with his past and confronts the world he once loved and left behind.'Kunzru's brilliance is his ability to fold vertiginous questions [...] into his storytelling. In its unnerving depiction of [...] uneasy relationships, Blue Ruin not only keeps pace with White Tears and Red Pill, but also confirms his status as a master choreographer of the present moment's creeping anxiety.' Literary Review“[Blue Ruin] promises to be harrowing and darkly funny. Kunzru has a knack for the nightmarish present, and few things feel more nightmarish than a forced confrontation with the past in the early stages of the pandemic.” Lit Hub, 'Most Anticipated Books of 2024'“Kunzru’s [Blue Ruin] is a triumph of beauty and a true ode to the artist.” Oprah Daily, 'Most Anticipated Books of 2024'“Kunzru takes on the excessive and rapacious tendencies of the art world in his dazzling latest . . . [Blue Ruin] is immensely satisfying.” Publishers Weekly“A lively, ever-intensifying story of race, immigration, work, and what it means to earn a living . . . [Blue Ruin is] a darkly ironic tale of two bubbles—an art world divorced from economic reality and a Covid era that segregated us from society . . . A dark, smart, provocative tale of the perils of art making.” Kirkus“Exquisite writing and keen insights into class tensions and creative dilemmas. Kunzru affirms that it’s always a good time to live an examined life, even during a pandemic.” Booklist

From one of the sharpest voices in fiction today, a profound and enthralling novel about beauty, power, and capital's influence on art and those who devote their lives to creating it. 'Blue Ruin is bracingly intelligent and often just plain beautiful. It’s a reminder that fiction, at its best, is a place to encounter new experiences and dwell in big ideas. Kunzru is known for ambitious novels that bring politics to rich, imaginative life; Blue Ruin shows him at the top of his game.' Sandra Newman, Guardian 'Book of the Day' 'I read everything Hari Kunzru writes, for my highest pleasure and my deepest sustenance.' Rachel Kushner 'Genuinely thrilling...both a sharp dissection of the oily inner workings of the art world, and a compelling portrait of one man’s desperate attempt to escape complicity in the capitalist machine.' Financial Times Once Jay was tipped for greatness, a rising star of the London art scene. Now, he lives out of his car and earns money delivery groceries to the wealthy of upstate New York, while all around a terrible pandemic rages.  When Jay arrives at a house set in an enormous acreage of woodland, he is shocked to see somebody he thought forever lost to him. Standing on the porch is Alice, a lover from his art school days. Their relationship was tumultuous and destructive, ultimately ending when she left him for his best friend and fellow artist Rob. Alice and Rob have achieved the riches and success for which Jay once seemed destined. Ashamed and debilitated by the virus that has ravaged his body, Jay hopes she won't recognise him behind his dirty surgical mask. When she does, however, she invites him to recover on the property, setting in motion a reckoning decades in the making.  Gripping and brilliantly orchestrated, Blue Ruin moves back and forth through time to deliver an extraordinary portrait of an artist as he reunites with his past and confronts the world he once loved and left behind. 'Kunzru's brilliance is his ability to fold vertiginous questions [...] into his storytelling. In its unnerving depiction of [...] uneasy relationships, Blue Ruin not only keeps pace with White Tears and Red Pill, but also confirms his status as a master choreographer of the present moment's creeping anxiety.' Literary Review “[Blue Ruin] promises to be harrowing and darkly funny. Kunzru has a knack for the nightmarish present, and few things feel more nightmarish than a forced confrontation with the past in the early stages of the pandemic.” Lit Hub, 'Most Anticipated Books of 2024' “Kunzru’s [Blue Ruin] is a triumph of beauty and a true ode to the artist.” Oprah Daily, 'Most Anticipated Books of 2024' “Kunzru takes on the excessive and rapacious tendencies of the art world in his dazzling latest . . . [Blue Ruin] is immensely satisfying.” Publishers Weekly “A lively, ever-intensifying story of race, immigration, work, and what it means to earn a living . . . [Blue Ruin is] a darkly ironic tale of two bubbles—an art world divorced from economic reality and a Covid era that segregated us from society . . . A dark, smart, provocative tale of the perils of art making.” Kirkus “Exquisite writing and keen insights into class tensions and creative dilemmas. Kunzru affirms that it’s always a good time to live an examined life, even during a pandemic.” Booklist

Its the 1990s, and Jay is an artist tipped for greatness. Shortly after graduating from his London art school, a promising career is already taking shape before him. Despite the brutal end of his intense relationship with Alice, his great love, hes destined to make his mark on the world as one of the most brilliant young creatives of the last century. Everyone is going to remember his name. Its 2020, and Jay lives out of his car, working as a delivery driver in wealthy upstate New York. Sick and undocumented, Jay arrives at an enormous mansion and collapses from exhaustion --- right at the feet of Alice, whom he had hoped he would never see again. Twenty years on, and while Jay teeters on the edge, shes married the man she left him for; Jays former best friend and fellow artist, Rob. Ashamed, Jay hopes she wont recognize him behind his dirty surgical mask, but when she does, she invites him to recover on the property, setting the stage for a devastating reckoning thats been decades in the making. Gripping and brilliantly orchestrated, Blue Ruin moves back and forth through time to deliver an extraordinary portrait of an artist as he reunites with his past and confronts the world he once loved and left behind. This is a novel suffused with tension and melancholy; an ode to an iconic art scene from an author at the height of his powers.

From one of the sharpest voices in fiction today, a profound and enthralling novel about beauty, power, and capital's influence on art and those who devote their lives to creating it.'Blue Ruin is bracingly intelligent and often just plain beautiful. It’s a reminder that fiction, at its best, is a place to encounter new experiences and dwell in big ideas. Kunzru is known for ambitious novels that bring politics to rich, imaginative life; Blue Ruin shows him at the top of his game.' Sandra Newman, Guardian 'Book of the Day''I read everything Hari Kunzru writes, for my highest pleasure and my deepest sustenance.' Rachel Kushner'Genuinely thrilling...both a sharp dissection of the oily inner workings of the art world, and a compelling portrait of one man’s desperate attempt to escape complicity in the capitalist machine.' Financial TimesOnce Jay was tipped for greatness, a rising star of the London art scene. Now, he lives out of his car and earns money delivery groceries to the wealthy of upstate New York, while all around a terrible pandemic rages.  When Jay arrives at a house set in an enormous acreage of woodland, he is shocked to see somebody he thought forever lost to him. Standing on the porch is Alice, a lover from his art school days. Their relationship was tumultuous and destructive, ultimately ending when she left him for his best friend and fellow artist Rob. Alice and Rob have achieved the riches and success for which Jay once seemed destined. Ashamed and debilitated by the virus that has ravaged his body, Jay hopes she won't recognise him behind his dirty surgical mask. When she does, however, she invites him to recover on the property, setting in motion a reckoning decades in the making.  Gripping and brilliantly orchestrated, Blue Ruin moves back and forth through time to deliver an extraordinary portrait of an artist as he reunites with his past and confronts the world he once loved and left behind.'Kunzru's brilliance is his ability to fold vertiginous questions [...] into his storytelling. In its unnerving depiction of [...] uneasy relationships, Blue Ruin not only keeps pace with White Tears and Red Pill, but also confirms his status as a master choreographer of the present moment's creeping anxiety.' Literary Review“[Blue Ruin] promises to be harrowing and darkly funny. Kunzru has a knack for the nightmarish present, and few things feel more nightmarish than a forced confrontation with the past in the early stages of the pandemic.” Lit Hub, 'Most Anticipated Books of 2024'“Kunzru’s [Blue Ruin] is a triumph of beauty and a true ode to the artist.” Oprah Daily, 'Most Anticipated Books of 2024'“Kunzru takes on the excessive and rapacious tendencies of the art world in his dazzling latest . . . [Blue Ruin] is immensely satisfying.” Publishers Weekly“A lively, ever-intensifying story of race, immigration, work, and what it means to earn a living . . . [Blue Ruin is] a darkly ironic tale of two bubbles—an art world divorced from economic reality and a Covid era that segregated us from society . . . A dark, smart, provocative tale of the perils of art making.” Kirkus“Exquisite writing and keen insights into class tensions and creative dilemmas. Kunzru affirms that it’s always a good time to live an examined life, even during a pandemic.” Booklist

From one of the sharpest voices in fiction today, a profound and enthralling novel about beauty, power, and capital's influence on art and those who devote their lives to creating it. Once, Jay was an artist. Shortly after graduating from his London art school, he was tipped for greatness, a promising career already taking shape before him. Now, undocumented in the United States, he lives out of his car and makes a living as an essential worker, delivering groceries in a wealthy area of upstate New York. The pandemic is still at its height--the greater public panicked in quarantine--and though he has returned to work, Jay hasn't recovered from the effects of a recent Covid case. When Jay arrives at a house set in an enormous acreage of woodland, he finds the last person he ever expected to see again: Alice, a former lover from his art school days. Their relationship was tumultuous and destructive, ultimately ending when she ghosted him and left for America with his best friend and fellow artist, Rob. In the twenty years since, their fortunes could not be more different: as Jay teeters on the edge of collapse, Alice and Rob have found prosperity in a life surrounded by beauty. Ashamed, Jay hopes she won't recognize him behind his dirty surgical mask; when she does, she invites him to recover on the property--where an erratic gallery owner and his girlfriend are isolating as well--setting a reckoning decades in the making into motion. Gripping and brilliantly orchestrated, Blue Ruin moves back and forth through time to deliver an extraordinary portrait of an artist as he reunites with his past and confronts the world he once loved and left behind.

‘The book I wish I’d written? Whatever Hari Kunzru is publishing next’ Aravind Adiga ‘Astonishing, absorbing, terrifying. Immensely good.’ Philip Pullman'‘Red Pill stands as a final blast of sanity against this new, deranged reality. It is a literary masterpiece for a barbaric new world rapidly running out of room for literary masterpieces.’ The Spectator '[A] deeply intelligent and artfully constructed novel.' Financial TimesFrom the author of White Tears comes a breathtaking, state-of-the-world novel about one man’s struggle to defend his values and create a reality free from the shadows of the past.  ‘From now on when you see something, you’re seeing it because I want you to see it. When you think of something, it’ll be because I want you to think about it…’   And with those words, the obsession begins.   A writer has left his family in Brooklyn for a three month residency at the Deuter Centre in Berlin, hoping for undisturbed days devoted to artistic absorption.   When nothing goes according to plan, he finds himself holed up in his room watching Blue Lives, a violent cop show with a bleak and merciless worldview. One night at a party he meets Anton, the charismatic creator of the show, and strikes up a conversation.   It is a conversation that leads him on a journey into the heart of moral darkness. A conversation thatthreatens to destroy everything he holds most dear, including his own mind.  Red Pill is a novel about the alt-right, online culture, creativity, sanity and history. It tells the story of the 21st century through the prism of the centuries that preceded it, showing how the darkest chapters of our past haunt our present. More than anything, though, this is a novel about love and how it can endure in a world where everything else seems to have lost all meaning.    Praise for White Tears ‘Exquisitely attuned’ Washington Post ‘Electrifying, subversive and wildly original’ TheNew Yorker 'A book that everyone should be reading right now' TIME Magazine  ‘Haunting, doom-drenched, genuinely and viscerally disturbing...’ The Independent

'';The book I wish I''d written? Whatever Hari Kunzru is publishing next''Aravind Adiga '';Astonishing, absorbing, terrifying. Immensely good.'' Philip Pullman'';Red Pill stands as a final blast of sanity against this new, deranged reality. It is a literary masterpiece for a barbaric new world rapidly running out of room for literary masterpieces.'' The Spectator [A] deeply intelligent and artfully constructed novel.Financial TimesFrom the author of White Tears comes a breathtaking, state-of-the-world novel about one man''s struggle to defend his values and create a reality free from the shadows of the past. '';From now on when you see something, you''re seeing it because I want you to see it. When you think of something, it''ll be because I want you to think about it'' And with those words, the obsession begins. A writer has left his family in Brooklyn for a three month residency at the Deuter Centre in Berlin, hoping for undisturbed days devoted to artistic absorption. When nothing goes according to plan, he finds himself holed up in his room watchingBlue Lives, a violent cop show with a bleak and merciless worldview. One night at a party he meets Anton, the charismatic creator ofthe show, and strikes up a conversation. It is a conversation that leads him on a journey into the heart of moral darkness. A conversation thatthreatens to destroy everything he holds most dear, including his own mind. Red Pillis a novel about the alt-right, online culture, creativity, sanity and history. It tells the story of the 21st century through the prism of the centuries that preceded it, showing how the darkest chapters of our past haunt our present. More than anything, though,thisis a novel about love and how it can endure in a world where everything else seems to have lost all meaning. Praise for White Tears '';Exquisitely attuned'' Washington Post '';Electrifying, subversive and wildly original'' TheNew Yorker A book that everyone should be reading right nowTIME Magazine '';Haunting, doom-drenched, genuinely and viscerally disturbing...'' The Independent

Seth und Carter sind Musikproduzenten in New York. Tagtäglich streift Seth auf der Suche nach neuen Tönen durch die Stadt. Dabei nimmt er am Washington Square Park zufällig eine unbekannte Stimme auf, die für wenige Augenblicke einen Blues-Song intoniert. Im Studio säubert er die Tonspur der Aufnahme und sampelt sie mit anderen Tonfragmenten. Aus Spaß schreibt Carter das Stück dem fiktiven Interpreten Charlie Shaw zu und stellt es mit dem Hinweis, die Aufnahme stamme aus dem Jahr 1928, ins Netz. Unter Sammlern alter Bluesplatten wird der Song im Nu zu einer viralen Sensation. Doch dann werden Carter und Seth von einem Mann kontaktiert, der behauptet, Charlie Shaw habe tatsächlich gelebt, und kurze Zeit später wird Carter von Unbekannten auf offener Straße angegriffen und schwer verletzt. Während er im Koma liegt, macht sich Seth zusammen mit Carters Schwester Leonie auf den Weg in den tiefen Süden der USA, um dort dem Geheimnis des vermeintlich fiktiven Songs auf die Spur zu kommen. Es wird eine Reise in die Vergangenheit, wo der Tod allgegenwärtig ist …

Jaz und Lisa Matharu reisen mit ihrem autistischen Sohn in die kalifornische Mojave-Wüste, um dem New Yorker Alltag zu entfliehen und ihre Ehe zu retten. Doch bei einem Ausflug verschwindet der vierjährige Raj in der Nähe einer Felsformation, die die bizarre Landschaft prägt und seit jeher Objekt mythischer Vorstellungen ist. 1947 ließ sich an gleicher Stelle ein ehemaliger Flugzeugmechaniker namens Schmidt nieder, der in den Felsen eine natürliche Antenne sah, um Kontakt zu Außerirdischen aufzunehmen. Quellen zufolge war dort bereits 1778 dem Missionar Francesco Garcès ein Engel erschienen, in Menschengestalt, mit dem Kopf eines Löwen … Alle Versuche der Polizei, Raj zu finden, scheitern, und es tauchen vermehrt Blogs und Tweets auf, in denen Jaz und Lisa verdächtigt werden, selbst für das Verschwinden ihres Kindes verantwortlich zu sein.Meisterhaft verknüpft Hari Kunzru eine Vielzahl von Schicksalen zu einem hellsichtigen, hochaktuellen Roman, der zugleich Gegenwartspanorama und Echokammer der Vergangenheit ist. Denn gestern wie heute ist das Aufeinanderprallen verschiedener Kulturen immer auch ein Kampf um Wahrheit und Macht.

Ein amerikanischer Schriftsteller erhält ein Stipendium für den Aufenthalt an einer Berliner Kulturstiftung. Das renommierte Deuter-Zentrum fühlt sich den Werten von Offenheit und Transparenz verpflichtet, er jedoch empfindet die rigiden Regeln der Akademie als Eingriff in seine Privatsphäre. Er sondert sich ab, unternimmt ausgedehnte Spaziergänge am Wannsee, liest Kleist und streamt sich durch alle Folgen einer ultrabrutalen Fernsehserie namens "Blue Lives". Auf einer Gala anlässlich der Berliner Filmfestspiele lernt er den Schöpfer der Serie kennen, einen jungen Amerikaner namens Anton, der sich rasch als reaktionärer Agitator entpuppt und eine unerklärliche Faszination auf ihn ausübt. Sind die konspirativen Codes und Signale, die er in Antons Serie zu erkennen glaubt, geheime Nachrichten an ihn? Ist er der Einzige, der Anton auf seinem Kreuzzug zur Verbreitung identitärer Werte aufhalten kann? Oder bildet er sich das alles nur ein? Nach und nach wird aus seinen quälenden Fragen echte Besessenheit, und er folgt Anton quer durch Europa, um ihn zu stellen …Mit "Red Pill" führt uns Hari Kunzru die Selbstvergessenheit liberaler Demokratien vor Augen. Eindringlich schildert er, welchen Gefahren sich unsere Gesellschaft im digitalen Zeitalter aussetzt, wenn sie, von der eigenen Unfehlbarkeit überzeugt, radikale Kräfte gewähren lässt. Denn zum autoritären Staat ist es immer nur ein kleiner Schritt.