The Pale King

David Foster Wallace

Hamish Hamilton,

560 pages, R599

The agents at the US government’s IRS Regional Examination Centre in Peoria, Illinois, appear ordinary enough to newly arrived trainee David Foster Wallace. But as he immerses himself in a routine so tedious and repetitive that new employees receive boredom-survival training, he learns of the extraordinary variety of personalities drawn to this strange calling. The much-awaited last masterpiece by one of the most-loved—and missed—writers of his generation.