Publisher's Synopsis
'Almost every page of The Names gives evidence of its author's brilliance and originality' Newsweek
'Compelling. . . strange and wonderful and frightening' New Yorker
'A serious and complicated novel which deserves praise. The native themes support layers of different meanings, clearly given in an outstandingly well-written and constructed book' Guardian
'Delillo verbally examines every state of consciousness from eroticism to tourism, from the idea of America as conceived by the rest of the world to the idea of the rest of the world as conceived by America, from mysticism to fanaticism' New York Times
'Delillo's most accomplished novel' Time
DeLillo's seventh novel is an exotic thriller. Set mostly in Greece, it concerns a mysterious 'language cult' seemingly behind a number of unexplained murders. Obsessed by news of this ritualistic violence, an American risk analyst is drawn to search for an explanation. We follow his progress on an obsessive journey that begins to take over his life and the lives of those closest to him.
In addition to offering a series of precise character studies, The Names explores the intersection of language and culture, the perception of America from both inside and outside its borders, and the impact that narration has on the facts of a story. Meditative and probing, DeLillo wonders: how does one cope with the fact that the act of articulation is simultaneously capable of defining and circumscriptively restricting access to the self?
