"This debut novel weaves the kind of mannered fantasy that might result if Wes Anderson were to adapt Kafka." --The New Yorker
Reminiscent of imaginative fiction from Jorge Luis Borges to Jasper Fforde yet dazzlingly original, The Manual of Detection marks the debut of a prodigious young talent. Charles Unwin toils as a clerk at a huge, imperious detective agency located in an unnamed city always slick with rain. When Travis Sivart, the agency's most illustrious detective, is murdered, Unwin is suddenly promoted and must embark on an utterly bizarre quest for the missing investigator that leads him into the darkest corners of his soaking, somnolent city. What ensues is a noir fantasy of exquisite craftsmanship, as taut as it is mind- blowing, that draws readers into a dream world that will change what they think about how they think.
- ISBN10 0143116517
- ISBN13 9780143116516
- Publish Date 26 January 2010 (first published 19 February 2009)
- Publish Status Active
- Publish Country US
- Imprint Penguin Books
- Format Paperback (US Trade)
- Pages 288
- Language English
- URL https://penguinrandomhouse.com/books/isbn/9780143116516