Nana

More about the book

From the author of a New York Times bestseller and a cult classic comes a cunningly plotted novel that reinvents the apocalyptic thriller. Carl Streator, a solitary widower and newspaper reporter, investigates Sudden Infant Death Syndrome and uncovers a chilling connection: the anthology Poems and Rhymes Around the World, found at death scenes, opened to a lethal African chant known as the “culling song.” Once this song lodges in Streator's mind, he becomes an involuntary serial killer. To stop the spread of this deadly verbal virus, he teams up with Helen Hoover Boyle, a real estate broker who sells haunted houses and lost a child to the culling song. Their cross-country journey to eliminate copies of the book is joined by Helen's earnest Wiccan assistant, Mona Sabbat, and her sardonic ecoterrorist boyfriend, Oyster, who is embroiled in a scam involving fake claims and blackmail. This chilling narrative serves as a parable about the dangers of psychic infection in an age of overwhelming information. It unfolds as a tightly wound thriller with a suspenseful plot full of twists, while also delivering black comedy that solidifies the author's reputation as a contemporary seer and our funniest nihilist.