Books › The Business
The Business
A Novel
416 pages
A sleek, globetrotting satire that peels back the velvet curtain of hyper-capitalism to reveal the hollow heart of corporate power.
What it feels like
Reading this feels like sitting in a first-class airport lounge while the world quietly shifts outside the tinted windows. The narrative moves at a brisk, jet-setting pace, carrying you from Silicon Valley to remote Himalayan peaks, all filtered through a wry, sharply observant lens. Banks crafts an atmosphere that is simultaneously cosmopolitan and deeply isolating, perfectly mirroring the protagonist's emotional insulation. The prose is witty and expansive, blending sharp social critique with imaginative, almost speculative corporate world-building. It is a perfect match for readers who love intelligent, cynical explorations of late-stage capitalism, offering a journey that shifts from high-functioning detachment to a quiet, unsettling awakening of moral clarity and personal vulnerability.
- Mood
- sleek
- detached
- cosmopolitan
- slightly surreal
- Tone
- wry
- satirical
- observant
- cynical
- Pace
- brisk
- Themes
- corporate power · emotional detachment · illusion of control · late-stage capitalism · personal identity
- The writing
- Sharp, witty, and expansive, blending sharp social observation with imaginative, almost speculative world-building.
- The arc
- From insulated, high-functioning detachment to a gradual, unsettling awakening of personal vulnerability and moral clarity.
- Who it's for
- Readers who enjoy smart, satirical takes on corporate globalization and globetrotting narratives with a philosophical edge.
Content notes
- corporate manipulation
- mild sexual content
About the book
Kate Telman is a senior executive officer in The Business, a powerful and massively discreet transglobal organisation. Financially transparent, internally democratic and disavowing conventional familial inheritance, the character of The Business seems, even to Kate, to be vague to the point of invisibility. It possesses, allegedly, a book of Leonardo cartoons, several sets of Crown Jewels and wants to buy its own State in order to acquire a seat at the United Nations. Kate's job is to keep abreast of current technological developments and her global reach encompasses Silicon Valley, a ranch in Nebraska, the firm's secretive Swiss headquarters, and a remote Himalayan principality. In the course of her journey Kate must peel away layers of emotional insulation and the assumptions of a lifetime. She must learn to keep her world at arm's length. -- Publisher description.
Description from Open Library.
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