Zero K: A Novel

An Amazon Best Book of May 2016: Jeffrey Lockhart, son of billionaire Ross Lockhart, is staying with his father and his stepmother at a cryogenics facility in central Asia. His stepmother, Artis, is waiting to have her body preserved until a treatment for her disabling multiple sclerosis can be found and she can be reawakened and cured. Despite referring to cryogenics as faith-based technology, Jeffrey s father is a big investor in the facility where the three of them stand on the very spear tip of the future. Thus, the stage is set for DeLillo to riff on life and death, life and family, life and money, life and technology, and to examine the difference between life and Life. DeLillo is very much in his comfort zone in this book and he pushes the existentialist envelope. I m someone who s supposed to be me, says Artis at one point in the novel. That s true for all of us. The question is how? And do you do it by adding or subtracting? --Chris Schluep