Gods without Men

Author(s): Hari Kunzru

Location(s): California

Genre(s): Fiction, Historical

Era(s): From 1770s to late 2000s

Location

Content

This novel takes you through various times, from 1778 up to 2009, and a number of characters who all intersect through the ages and a place in the Californian desert. A four-year-old autistic boy, Raj Matharu, disappears in the wilderness, plunging his wealthy New York parents into the surreal public hell of a media witch-hunt. But the desert is inexplicable and miraculous, and the Matharus’ fate is bound up with that of others: a debauched British rock star, on the run from a failed relationship and the sordid excesses of his life: a former member of an extraterrestrial-worshipping cult, now middle-aged but still haunted by transcendent callings: and a teenage Iraqi refugee, who befriends a young black Marine while playing the role of ‘Iraqi villager’ in a military simulation exercise. Their lives converge in an odd, remote town, near a rock formation called The Pinnacles — and among the tangled echoes and stories of all those who have travelled before them through this brutally powerful landscape.

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