The Investigator is despatched to a provincial town to find out the truth behind a disturbing spate of suicides amongst employees of The Firm. But from the moment he steps off the train, he finds himself in a world that is alien, unrecognisable, and diabolically complex.
From the hostile weather and the fickle hospitality at Hotel Hope to the town's bewildering inhabitants, everything seems to be against him to the point where he wonders whether he is trapped in a recurring nightmare, or has passed into the realm of death itself.
Cold, hungry and humiliated, and always one step behind, he nevertheless remains determined to find the only man he can hold to account - The Firm's legendary but elusive founder.
The Investigation is an enthralling fable in which our own world is turned on its head, and where the only answers are more questions. Philippe Claudel - author of Brodeck's Report and Monsieur Linh and His Child - is one of Europe's most daring and versatile novelists.
Publisher: Quercus Publishing
ISBN: 9780857051578
Number of pages: 240
Weight: 186 g
Dimensions: 197 x 134 x 17 mm
'A complex novel of ideas ... [Claudel] has managed a rare trick' David Annand, Daily Telegraph. - Daily Telegraph
'Written with such relish, inventiveness, imagination and brio, that it is consistently entertaining' Allan Massie, Scotsman. - Scotsman
'The twists develop with venomous imagination and the wider themes are elegantly explored' David Mills, Sunday Times. - Sunday Times
'The novel is frequently very funny, but it also skillfully evokes the insidious, modern fear that we, like the Investigator, are playing bit parts in some vast, incomprehensible system' Sam Sacks, Wall Street Journal. - Wall Street Journal
The Investigator arrives in a town in order to investigate a series of suicides in the Firm, a large conglomerate dominating everything.
From the moment the Investigator arrives, everything goes wrong and he is...
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I became a big fan of French writer Philippe Claudel back in 2010 after reading the wonderful Monsieur Linh and His Child. The first thing that struck me about his latest novel, The Investigation, was how incredibly... More
Quite bizarre, something like Kafka through the looking glass. The Investigator tries to carry out his investigation into a spate of suicides at the Firm, and encounters nothing but obstruction again and again....
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