'Fun and erudite' Sunday Times
'Snort-inducingly funny' Daily Mail
'One of the cleverest books you'll read this year'Telegraph
A darkly ironic novel of ideas, a dystopia, and an absurdist thriller, from the award-winning novelist
Self-anointed guru of the Digital Age, Guy Matthias, CEO of Beetle, has become one of the world's most powerful and influential figures. Untaxed and ungoverned, his trans-Atlantic company essentially operates beyond the control of Governments or the law.
But trouble is never far away, and for Guy a perfect storm is brewing: his wife wants to leave him, fed up with his serial infidelities; malfunctioning Beetle software has led to some unfortunate deaths which are proving hard to cover up; his longed for deal with China is proving troublingly elusive and, among other things, the mystery hacker, Gogol, is on his trail.
With the clock ticking- Guy, his aide Douglas Varley, Britain's flailing female PM, conflicted national security agent Eloise Jayne, depressed journalist David Strachey, and Gogol, whoever that may be - the question is becoming ever more pressing, how do you live in reality when nobody knows anything, and all knowledge, all certainty, is partly, or entirely fake?
Review
One of the cleverest books you'll read this year. - Telegraph
A witty exploration of freedom and oppression . . . fun and erudite . . . For readers who like to nod at clever references, the imaginative Zed will be a delight, and it will no doubt gain many admirers. - Sunday Times
It's chillingly believable, but Zed is also extremely funny . . . Kavenna remains one of the most brilliant and disconcerting British writers working today. - Spectator
Kavenna's prose is exhilarating. Reality is incoherent. Dreams, VR and lived experience all blur. Identities multiply, while true authenticity seems impossible to quantify. - New Scientist
Imagine a denser, intellectually chewier and very British version of dystopian tech satire The Circle, by Dave Eggers, and you'll have some idea of this . . . snort-inducingly funny. - Daily Mail
One of the most entertaining, fluent and readable novelists around. - Observer
A work of delirious genius. - Guardian, Book of the Day
Kavenna's writing brims with manic energy, using relentless logic to show just how bizarre an algorithm can be... Zed plunges into potential extremes, and reminds us that in all our faults, we cannot be reduced to a series of 1s and 0s. At least, not yet. - FT Weekend Magazine
This razor-keen examination of an algorithmically controlled world feels perilously close to contemporary life. - Metro
A razor-sharp satire . . . Kavenna has hit a home run with Zed. - Irish Tatler
A playful takedown of the technological era while offering an updated philosophical case-study of free will against the backdrop of big data. - TANK
Kavenna is a Very Intelligent Author. Her imagined world is convincing and darkly humorous . . . Kavenna's satire has bite . . . and often rings uncomfortably true. - Literary Review
One of the cleverest books you'll read this year. - The Week
[Kavenna's] latest novel is the best so far. - E&T Magazine
Zed intelligently depicts the dangers posed by the high-tech companies increasingly infiltrating our lives and simultaneously revels in the resistance that comes from being human . . . Kavenna's wickedly delicious humour is the light at the end of the tunnel - Sunday Business Post
Zed is a marvel. Not only does it map the chilling implications of creeping technological and corporate influence, it reveals to us the deeply necessary phenomena with which that influence is in conflict. The result is both a painfully convincing dystopia and a moving argument for unpredictability - even chaos - as its own kind of freedom. -- Sam Byers, author of PERFIDIOUS ALBION
A dark, dazzling journey through possible near-futures, with an eye for the apocalyptic absurdity of technology and its acolytes. It's a novel of ideas with heart and soul - and a brimmingly brilliant distaste for those awaiting the digital rapture. -- Tom Chatfield, author of FUN INC. and HOW TO SURVIVE IN THE DIGITAL AGE
Brilliant dystopian insanity on a grand scale, describing a world of corporate pretenders, broken software, and algorithms that never quite work as well as they're supposed to. Hilarious, incisive, and painfully relevant. -- Max Berry, author of LEXICON
Kavenna explores the complex nature of reality and perception with vast imaginative energy and a generous spirit. - A. L. Kennedy
Joanna Kavenna is a true literary insurgent: bravely unconventional and ruthless in her quest to demonstrate the possibility of deep, distinctive experience. - Miriam Toews
Book Description
A darkly ironic novel of ideas, a dystopia, and an absurdist thriller, from the award-winning novelist, Joanna Kavenna.
About the Author
Joanna Kavenna grew up in various parts of Britain, and has also lived in the USA, France, Germany, Scandinavia and the Baltic States. Her first book The Ice Museum was about travelling in the North. Her second book, a novel called Inglorious, won the Orange Prize for New Writing. Kavenna's writing has appeared in the London Review of Books, the Guardian and Observer, the Times Literary Supplement, the International Herald Tribune, the Spectator and the Telegraph, among other publications. She has held writing fellowships at St Antony's College, Oxford and St John's College, Cambridge. She currently lives in the Duddon Valley, Cumbria.
Joanna Kavenna is the author of several works of fiction and non-fiction including The Ice Museum, Inglorious, The Birth of Love and A Field Guide to Reality. Her short stories and essays have appeared in the New Yorker, the LRB, the New Scientist, the Guardian and the New York Times. In 2008 she won the Orange Prize for New Writing, and in 2013 she was named one of Granta's Best Young British Novelists.
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