Publisher's Synopsis
From the author of National Book Award-nominated Lost in the Funhouse, comes an outrageously farcical adventure that challenges our notions of technology, power, and human nature.
"[Barth] ran riot over literary rules and conventions, even as he displayed, with meticulous discipline, mastery of and respect for them." -The New York Times
Giles Goat-Boy tells the story of a human boy raised as a goat who comes to believe that he is humanity's prophesied messiah. In an absurdist universe that takes the form of a unversity--divided into an authoritarian East Campus and a more open West Campus--young George Giles rises to assume the title of Grand Tutor, the spiritual leader of the world and heroic defender of his people against the threat of a tyrannical computer system. Hailed as a "fantasy of theology, sociology, and sex" (Time magazine), Giles Goat-Boy has long been one of John Barth's most popular and multi-layered narratives.
