Description

The definitive cult, post-modern novel – a shocking blend of violence, transgression and eroticism – reissued with an introduction from Zadie Smith.

After being bombarded endlessly by road-safety propaganda it was almost a relief to find myself in an actual accident.

When James Ballard smashes his car into another, he becomes fascinated with the allure of violence. His new friend Dr Robert Vaughan – a charismatic figure with a dubious sense of morality – leads him to a transgressive underworld of desire, where the collision of modernity and sex are pushed to the extremes. In a society ruled by mass-media and technological advancements, are there any limits to humanity’s obsessions?

Publisher Review

'A work of very powerful originality. Ballard is amongst our finest writers of fiction' Anthony Burgess 'One of the few genuine surrealists this country has produced, the possessor of a terrifying and exhilarating imagination' Guardian 'Ballard has issued a series of bulletins on the modern world of almost unerring prescience. Other writers describe; Ballard anticipates' Will Self