The real name of the main character of this book is never revealed. He is referred to as Theo throughout the story. Theo is the name of his friend at University who lived in the room next door. That friend was murdered in a duel with a rich sociopath also attending the University. This happened over an argument over how said sociopath was treating a woman at a house party. After the murder the main character adopts his friend’s name and life, since he has no real future otherwise and Theo’s parents and family are effectively estranged.
In the world of the book all crimes are effectively legal if you can afford to pay an amount of money scaled to the severity of the crime. This is handled by a giant corporation which has taken over the running of the state. Theo is a civil servant weighing up the value of people’s lives.
Theo discovers that his childhood friend is in trouble with the company. She also has had a child who she is claiming is his from their last meeting on a beach. Her daughter is currently in prison, and she has to spend her time writing online product reviews for various brands, which I thought was a fun detail. The friend ends up being assassinated, and Theo decides to investigate just what is going on. He discovers that the psychopath from his past is involved and decides to get revenge and rescue his daughter.
I struggled with the prose in this book. Sentences run on. They stop mid thought, lines occasionally begin at arbitrary points of the page, scenes change without warning and it is all told out of order and in fragmentary passages. The frustrating thing was that it just felt like a pretentious stylistic choice. It in no way seemed to be serving a purpose or contributing to the story in any way. For books like Trainspotting, or authors like Cormac McCarthy, the unusual prose style is a significant part of the world and used to bring you in. In this book it felt like it was keeping me one step removed from everything happening, and for no purpose.