The Agents

(Paperback)

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Description

Nineteen Eighty-Four meets Tron, via The Office, in this boldly dystopian novel

The agents dont know what theyre agents of, but theyre very busy agenting, which means watching endless data feeds in their cubicles, cubicles that are piled one on top of another in a massive tower in which the agents both live and work. Empty floors serve as battlefields where different guilds of agents fight for territory. It seems that defenestration is the only way out, the ballet of suicides.

It is here we meet Thodore, who has amputated his own toes and must maintain a 30-degree angle to keep his balance. And Solveig, who is pregnant, though agents dont usually have sex, as well as the artist Lazslo and self-mutilating Clara. And then theres Hick, the new agent, who seems strangely happy and occupies a cubicle that is strategically very important.

The battle for key territory is heating up, and the agents arent sure which of them will make it out alive. If, indeed, thats what any of them want

The author of the acclaimed The Laws of the Skies turns his hand from literary horror to futuristic dystopianism in this unforgettable marriage between The Office, Nineteen Eighty-Four, and Tron.

Reviews

"Engrossing and unpredictable...a thoughtful and provocative speculative novel that casts a keen critical eye toward the contemporary world, addressing deep questions about the meanings of life, community, and work."Forward Reviews

"Novels like this are why we need the horror genre." Winnipeg Free Press

"[This] novel is about how work, as defined by late-stage capitalism, has gradually become the sole purpose of our lives. " Ian Mond,Locus Magazine

"The satire is as deliciously dark as a hell-hounds maw." Zsuzsi Gartner,Literary Review of Canada

Author Bio

Grgoire Courtois lives and works in Burgundy, where he runs the independent bookstore Obliques, which he bought in 2011. A novelist and playwright, he has published four novels with Le Quartanier:Rvolution(2011),Surquipe(2015),Les lois du ciel(2016), andLes agents(2019). In 2013 he founded Caractres, an international book festival in Auxerre, which he continues to run.