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brilliant new novel from one of the greatest living American writers In the middle
of a desert 'somewhere south of nowhere', to a forlorn house made of metal and
clapboard, a secret war adviser has gone in search of space and time. Richard
Elster, seventy-three, was a scholar - an outsider - when he was called to a meeting
with government war planners. For two years he tried to make intellectual sense
of the troop deployments, counterinsurgency, and orders for rendition. He was
to map the reality these men were trying to create. At the end of his service,
Elster retreats to the desert, where he is joined by young filmmaker intent on
documenting his experience. Jim Finley wants to make a one-take film, Elster its
single character - 'Just a man against a wall.' The two men sit on the deck, drinking
and talking. Finley makes the case for his film. Weeks go by. And then Elster's
daughter Jessie visits - an 'otherworldly' woman from New York - who dramatically
alters the dynamic of the story. When a devastating event follows, all the men's
talk, the accumulated meaning of conversation and isolation, is thrown into question.
What is left is loss, fierce and incomprehensible. POINT OMEGA is a deeply unnerving
and brilliant work from one of our greatest living writers. 
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