National Book Award Finalist  "Political satire at its best: scathing, funny, dark. Grade: A.” — Entertainment Weekly The breakout novel from the #1 New York Times bestselling author of Beautiful Ruins , Jess Walter: In the wake of a devastating terrorist attack, one man struggles to make sense of his world, even as the world tries to make use of him Brian Remy has no idea how he got here. It’s been only five days since terrorists attacked his city, and Remy is experiencing gaps in his life—as if he were a stone being skipped across water. He has a self-inflicted gunshot wound that he doesn’t remember inflicting. His son wears a black armband and refuses to acknowledge that Remy is still alive. He seems to be going blind. He has a beautiful new girlfriend whose name he doesn’t know. And his old partner in the police department, who may well be the only person crazier than Remy, has just gotten his picture on a box of First Responder cereal. And these are the good things in Brian Remy’s life. While smoke still hangs over the city, Remy is recruited by a mysterious government agency that is assigned to gather all of the paper that was scattered in the attacks. As he slowly begins to realize that he’s working for a shadowy intelligence operation, Remy stumbles across a dangerous plot, and with the world threatening to boil over in violence and betrayal, he realizes that he’s got to track down the most elusive target of them all—himself. And the only way to do that is to return to that place where everything started falling apart. In the tradition of Catch-22, The Manchurian Candidate, and the novels of Ian McEwan, comes this extraordinary story of searing humor and sublime horror, of blindness, bewilderment, and that achingly familiar feeling that the world has suddenly stopped making sense. “This is political satire at its best: scathing, funny, dark. Grade: A.” - Entertainment Weekly “An original page-turner… a nifty spin on the genre. This fine novel has a memorable cast of characters…” - Philadelphia Inquirer “A powerful fiction debut” - Seattle Times “A deliriously mordant political satire…Walter’s Helleresque take on a traumatic time…carries off his dark and hilarious narrative with a grandly grotesque imagination.” - Publishers Weekly “A tense and compulsively readable roller-coaster ride fraught with psychological thrills, unanticipated dips and lurches, and existential truths. The novel frightened and fascinated me in equal measures. Walter has written a neo-noirish masterpiece.” - Wally Lamb, author of I know this Much is True “Walter goes from strength to strength, establishing himself as the current master of fractured U.S. history with all of the surrealism and black humor necessary for such an undertaking. Kafka would have to laugh.” - Library Journal “Perceptive, ingenious satire…fascinating and important” - BookPage “Compelling, intelligent… Walter keeps the suspense at a high level to the very end.” - Library Journal “Exceptional… trancends the mystery of crime and takes a courageous look at an even more profound mystery―the mystery of what it takes to continue living. Totally absorbing.” - Ursula Hegi “A disquieting first novel… Walter applies the same incisive sensitivity to the victims, the stalker, and the city itself.” - New York Times Book Review “A home run off the first pitch… A tremendous debut, full of pace and tensoin and unexpected twists… head and shoulders above the pack.” - Lee Child “Stunning… a splendid thriller, loaded with knuckle-whitening tension… First-rate writing.” - Oregonian “Suspenseful, challenging and intelligently written… a first novel of considerable depth and insight.” - Dallas Morning News “Aa satire/tragedy that Franz Kafka and Kurt Vonnegut Jr. might appreciate.” - USA Today “Refreshing… entertaining… for readers who appreciate wry precisions and expert timing.” - Janet Maslin, New York Times “Fresh and different―a gritty story of betrayal, and an extended riff on life, death, and politics. Walter is a literary talent writ large.” - Boston Globe “Admirably unpredictable… a story full of wonderful small surprises. Dispassionate amd compassionate by turns, and always engrossing. Walter’s best by far.” - Kirkus Reviews (starred) “A mystery novel of profound death. Despite themselves, readers will question their own self-images and assess just how far they’ve really come from the scared high-school kid who wanted to be exactly like everyone else but somehow still unique. A haunting, deeply troubling novel.” - Booklist (starred review) “Absorbing… Walter renders his blind land with a clear-eyed, compassionate vision.” - Kirkus Reviews “Exquisitely written. . . . Like a paranoid Being There, The Zero is suspenseful, satisfying and unforgettable.” - “Galley Talk” Publishers Weekly “A brilliant tour–de–force that’s as heartrending as it is harrowing…the breakout novel of a brave and talented young writer.” - Kirkus Revi