Description
Benjamin Stanton works in Luxembourg at the Central Court of the European Union, where cases to which existing law does not provide a remedy are directed and decided. He is what is called a referendaire. He digests the evidence and testimony submitted for the court's consideration. He drafts the judgments and opinions that the court hands down. He is a man behind the scenes who, as good as, makes the law. He is brilliant. For now he enjoys the power of anonymity, but, as both his superiors and his colleagues recognize, he is destined to go far.
He has come a long way. An orphan, brought up in a series of foster homes, he went on to serve with the British army in Iraq, assigned to track down those weapons of mass destruction that had made the invasion imperative. No weapons were there to be found, of course, and Stanton came away from the war with scars to his body and soul. An unexpected encounter at a conference shows how fragile he remains.
An exhilarating investigation, in the great tradition of Balzac and Pynchon, into the covert workings of money and power, The Rhyl Poster explores a world of masks and intrigue where shadowy players seek to manipulate the law to their own ends. It is a book about the elusive substance of the self, the burden of historical and individual guilt, and the elusive but unignorable call of justice. Tom McCarthy's novel is a work of high style, unsettling lyricism, and thrilling invention.
A Pynchonesque novel of legal and political intrigue, featuring mind-altering substances, shadowy power players, and the Central Court of the EU.