I’m in New York to do a talk at NYU on Tuesday. My plane reading was [amazon_link id=”0241146666″ target=”_blank” ]The Mark and the Void[/amazon_link] by Paul Murray, author of the hilarious and tragic [amazon_link id=”0141009950″ target=”_blank” ]Skippy Dies.[/amazon_link] His new novel is set in Dublin’s financial centre at some stage after the financial crisis has struck and before it has ended (not that it has, really). It is extremely funny – I particularly liked the character of Jurgen, the protagonist’s immediate boss. It also seems to me a pretty accurate representation of the rotteness of the system and the helplessness of many perfectly decent people (if eccentric, at least in this tale) trapped inside it. Actually, for readers who haven’t ploughed through the many, many booksabout different aspects of the crisis, [amazon_link id=”0241146666″ target=”_blank” ]The Mark and the Void[/amazon_link] would be a decent introduction. But I recommend it for the out-loud laughs as well. (And apologies to the lady next to me on the plane who must have thought she had a nutter next to her.)

[amazon_image id=”0241146666″ link=”true” target=”_blank” size=”medium” ]The Mark and the Void[/amazon_image]