ANYONE ON FOOT in suburban California is one of four things, you learn not far into Transmission: 'poor, foreign, mentally ill, or jogging'. What oft was thought, but ne'er so well expressed. You don't have to read too much of Hari Kunzru's second novel before you realise you are in safe hands: a slick, aphoristic joke; a neat turn of phrase; a truth that makes you laugh.

Transmission is essentially a comic novel, the story of a computer virus called Leela which does its semi- - - autonomous very best to bring the world to a halt. Leela is an executable file which you initiate when you open your e-mail. It shows you an animation of a

Jun 2004

Talking It Over Again

Another Shandy?

Back to the Future

The Spy Who Came Out of the Chippy

Diary: To Be or To Not Be

Reach for the Stars

Compound Interests

On the Road to Nowhere

The Agoraphobe Within

Kidnapped for the Cows

Waking Up Is Hard To Do

What The Doctor Did

Living In A Box

Stories of a Century

Puritans Vs Papists

Family Matters

The Adman Cometh

Desperately Seeking Puttenham

The Donkey & the Howler-Monkey

Walk On The Wild Side

Acting Up

Oceans Apart

Unreal Cities

A Mesopotamian Palimpsest

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