Continuing Tavares's award-winning Kingdom series (begun in Jerusalem,
winner of the Saramago Prize), Joseph Walser's Machine recounts a life
of bizarre routines and patterns. Routine humiliation at a factory;
routine maintenance of the world's most esoteric collection; and the
most important routine of all: the operation of a mysterious machine on
a factory floor. Yet all of Joseph Walser's routines are violently
disrupted when his city is occupied by an invading army, leaving him
faced with political intrigues, marital discord, and finally, one last,
catastrophic confrontation with his beloved machine.