V.

by Thomas Pynchon

Published 26 September 1978

The quest for V. sweeps us through sixty years and a panorama of Alexandria, Paris, Malta, Florence, Africa and New York. But who, where or what is V.? Bawdy, sometimes sad and frequently hilarious, V. as become a modern classic.

This is the first novel by the author of Gravity's Rainbow, and a profoundly impressive and original work in its own right.


The Crying of Lot 49

by Thomas Pynchon

Published 12 October 1979

Suffused with rich satire, chaotic brilliance, verbal turbulence and wild humour, The Crying of Lot 49 opens as Oedipa Maas discovers that she haas been made executrix of a former lover's estate. The performance of her duties sets her on a strange trail of detection, in which bizarre characters crowd in to help or confuse her. But gradually, death, drugs, madness and marriage combine to leave Oepida in isolation on the threshold of revelation, awaiting The Crying of Lot 49.

One of Pynchon's shortest novels and one of his best.