The Information

A wry, incisive satire of envy and ambition following a failed novelist’s absurd quest to sabotage his more successful rival—with a new introduction by James Wood.

Richard Tull, a failed and disillusioned novelist, seethes with envy as he watches his longtime friend Gwyn Barry, a talentless, populist charlatan, rise to literary superstardom. Barry is adored by readers, celebrated by critics, and constantly in the public eye, while Tull sinks deeper into middle-aged obscurity, unable to escape the evidence of his own defeat. In a trance of impotent rage, Tull devises a vicious plan to ruin his friend—or at least hurt him as badly as possible—and finds himself tumbling into London’s criminal underworld, as well as the darkest precincts of his own soul.

Laced with Martin Amis’s signature linguistic brilliance and exquisite satirical bite, The Information probes the corrosive power of envy, the absurdity of rivalry, the hollow victories of modern fame, and the agonizing smallness of man’s place in the universe. By turns hilarious and devastating, it is the work of a literary master at the peak of his dazzling powers.