The Tesseract
Alex Garland
Language: English
Pages: 288
ISBN: 1573227749
Format: PDF / Kindle (mobi) / ePub
An intricately woven, suspenseful novel of psychological and political intrigue, The Tesseract follows the interlocking fates of three sets of characters in the Philippines: gangsters in a chase through the streets of Manila; a middle-class mother putting her children to bed in the suburbs and remembering her first love; and a couple of street kids and the wealthy psychiatrist who is studying their dreams. Alex Garland demonstrates the range of his extraordinary talents as a novelist in this national bestseller, a Chinese puzzle of a novel about three intersecting sets of characters in the Philippines.
muttered Don Pepe, looking through the car windows, shaking his head at the crumbling streets that led to Hotel Patay. ‘Completely incredible. Teroy, what were you thinking of?’ ‘Mister Alain, sir. He once stayed here, so I thought…’ ‘Mister who?’ ‘Mister Sean’s predecessor, sir,’ Bubot chipped in. ‘He was the first mate of the Karaboujan, until…’ ‘Oh, Mister Alan. “An” Teroy, not “ain”… Poor Mister Alan. He must have been very sad about the loss of his captain. Off Mindanao, wasn’t it?’
up, and before Rosa could say anything else, Lito had lifted his net and was walking towards the shallows. Rosa watched him for a few moments. He wasn’t short, but he certainly wasn’t tall either, and he was as black as the other boys who worked in the sea. But he was also more handsome and less scarred than many of them, and he cut his hair much shorter. Disco hair was prized by all whose parents permitted it, following the local tradition of diligently matching Manila fashions of the previous
confirmed, it won’t show up too much. But if it had been a boy… well, it doesn’t bear thinking about.’ Rosa frowned, turning this comment over in her mind. Then she said, ‘Oh.’ ‘Sison,’ said Leesha, probably a little louder than she should have, and knocked back her shot. ‘Don’t look at me like that. I held back for four years. But it seemed like everywhere I looked, there he was, playing basketball, being handsome. It drove me crazy.’ So it turned out that Rosa had been wrong, because she
Zealand (a division of Pearson New Zealand Ltd) Penguin Books (South Africa) (Pty) Ltd, 24 Sturdee Avenue, Rosebank, Johannesburg 2196, South Africa Penguin Books Ltd, Registered Offices: 80 Strand, London WC2R 0RL, England www.penguin.com First published by Viking 1998 Published in Penguin Books 1999 This edition published 2007 1 Copyright © Alex Garland, 1998 All rights reserved The moral right of the author has been asserted Except in the United States of America, this book is sold
of the bedside lamps. ‘You,’ he said, raising an accusing finger. ‘Are all about me.’ The moon orbits the earth. High tides and low tides come and go, the cause being gravity but the reason being nothing. The moon might have been bigger, further away, closer. It just happened not to be. There was no point in Sean asking himself why Don Pepe wanted him dead. Mundane as the moon, the question wasn’t worth a second thought and barely worth the first. And anyway, even if he’d been inclined to ask,