25 May, 1928: Over the frozen seas of the Arctic, an airship falls out the sky. Among the survivors is a young scientist on the verge of a discovery that will redefine physics.
3 October 1996: Through the dusty industrial towns of India’s Great Trunk Road, a disgraced and disfigured female detective starts tracking a criminal syndicate whose tentacles spread from forgery to smuggling to piracy. Her life has been ruined, but she will have her revenge.
26 December 2004: On the island of Bali a tsunami washes up a rusting container. Locked within this aluminium tomb, the mummified remains of a shipping magnate missing for 29 years and a hand-written journal of his last days.
13 December 2011: Off the coast of Sri Lanka, a tramp steamer is seized by pirates. The captain has his wife and son aboard, and their survival depends on following the pirates’ every demand. But what can they possibly want with his worn-out ship and its cargo of junk?
We know what they want. We know the ship was carrying a Dead Water cargo. And we know Dead Water is the key to everything. We could spin a thousand stories from this toxic Cold War secret but there’s only one of them that can really make a difference. And this is it.
Editorial Reviews
Review
THE WEIGHT OF NUMBERS ― CRITICAL ACCLAIM:
Dazzling, admirable narrative verve… It is unlikely there will be a finer written fiction this year ―
Guardian
An ambitious, exciting novel.. unforgettable’ ―
The Times
A dynamic, innovative, and compelling book that brings into focus some of the most interesting trends in contemporary fiction ―
Daily Telegraph
Simon Ings’ ambitiously genre-defying novel is a virtuoso display of imaginative plotting ―
Financial Times
Ings weaves an ingenious, shimmering web of contiguity and chance… a feat of meticulous plotting. ―
New Statesman
One of the most exciting – and relevant – books of the last year. Booker material, for sure. ―
Arena
A deceptively readable, dizzyingly constructed novel… Ing’s mad, mad world is held together to the very last page by humour, vivid depictions and a deeply compelling emotional core ―
Publishers Weekly STARRED review
Book Description
A novel of prodigious scope and ambition, ablaze with imaginative energy, brimming with incident [airship crashes, polar bear attacks – and that’s just the first chapter – tsunamis, modern-day piracy, a toxic cold war secret and a djinn] rendered in mesmerizing prose with the raw intelligence of one of the sharpest, most original contemporary British writers.
About the Author
SIMON INGS is a novelist and science writer. He lives in London with his wife and daughter.