A breathtakingly imaginative futuristic crime thriller.
Decades into the future, Indonesia's crowded capital city is underwater.
A mysterious novelist searches what remains of the metropolis for the
story of an old, infamous crime. He combs the streets for traces of
Gaspar: private-eye-cum-criminal-mastermind who plotted a seemingly
simple robbery of a jewelry store. Far from just unlocking riches,
however, the heist unearths a series of interlinking conflicts that have
haunted Gaspar since childhood.
In this brilliant twist of genres, this book combines noir with a
laugh-out-loud detective and touches of surreal science fiction. The
book's eclectic blend of allusions and narrative strategies opens new
horizons for literary crime fiction while also painting a fresh,
postmodern portrait of Jakarta. In a city webbed by roadways and canals,
personal vendettas trace back to political crimes and social ills. First
impressions can't be trusted, meta-literary motorbikes possess free
will, and a senile witness might be a police detective's best bet at
finding the true whodunnit--if we are to believe that a single truth
exists at all. It is a chess game in which your knight no longer moves
in the shape of an L, and Gaspar intends to win.
