THE INVESTIGATION
by Stanislaw Lem & translated by Adele Milch
The Polish science fiction writer has taken the format of the procedural police mystery and turned it into a metaphysical puzzler of considerable power. Dead bodies are inexplicably moving and disappearing. Has a crime been committed or are stranger forces at work? The young Scotland Yard officer in charge of the case struggles to find a resolution that will preserve his determinedly prosaic view of the world. Reality, however, proves less mundane and certainly less comprehensible than he had hoped. A compelling and disturbing book, closer to Kafka than the police precinct house.