The first novel written by Booker finalist Tom McCarthy — acclaimed author of Remainder and C — Men in Space is set in a Central Europe rapidly fragmenting after the fall of communism. It follows an oddball cast — dissolute bohemians, political refugees, a football referee, a disorientated police agent, and a stranded astronaut — as they chase a stolen painting from Sofia to Prague and onward. Planting the themes that McCarthy’s later works develop, here McCarthy questions the meaning of all kinds of space — physical, political, emotional, and metaphysical — as reflected in the characters’ various disconnections. What emerges is a vision of humanity adrift in history, and a world in a state of disintegration.
