Description

From the bestselling author of The Circle and The Monk of Mokha comes a taut, suspenseful story of two foreigners’ role in a nation’s fragile peace.

‘Tightly written, carefully designed to wrong-foot preconceptions, and astute . . . An intensely gripping story’ Evening Standard

An unnamed country is leaving the darkness of a decade at war, and to commemorate the armistice the government commissions a new road connecting two halves of the state.

Two men, foreign contractors from the same company, are sent to finish the highway. While one is flighty and adventurous, wanting to experience the nightlife and people, the other wants only to do the work and go home. But both men must eventually face the absurdities of their positions, and the dire consequences of their presence.

With echoes of J. M. Coetzee and Graham Greene, this timeless novel questions whether we can ever understand another nation’s war, and what role we have in forging anyone’s peace.

‘Certainly his best book since What is the What… The sound of a major writer finding his mature voice’ Spectator

Publisher Review

Egger's commitment to social and political issues continues * Mail on Sunday * It partakes of a complex of anxieties about America's role as an affluent superpower of dubious virtue * Financial Times * Wide-ranging and thoughtful engagement with concepts of power and inequality and whether Western notions of what constitutes 'progress' are always right * Literary Review * In The Parade, the anxiety grows with every page and every mile to reach an ending that turns everything upside down and sends us into the heart of darkness. A minimalistic, merciless novel. A powerful allegory and a painfully concrete contemporary story-Eggers is a true virtuoso of that synthesis. -- Georgi Gospodinov This is a tale for our time, an allegory about intervening in foreign lands without knowledge, and so a nightmare vision of our endless wars. -- Thomas E. Ricks A readable, atmospheric book * The Times * The Parade is a heartbreaker and a mindbender. It is a novel of ideas that packs an emotional punch that left me reeling. With clear, unadorned prose, Eggers lays bare the costs of war, and of peace -- Tayari Jones A parable of progress, as told by J.M. Coetzee to Philip K. Dick -- Richard Flanagan Certainly his best book since What is the What, The Parade may well be the sound of a major writer finding his mature voice * Spectator * Tightly written, carefully designed to wrong-foot preconceptions, and astute... An intensely gripping story * Evening Standard *