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 - 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. Part of the
Picador Collection a series showcasing the best of modern literature.
