Zero K

A <i>New York Times</i> bestseller, &quot;DeLillo's haunting new novel, <i>Zero K</i> - his most persuasive since his astonishing 1997 masterpiece, <i>Underworld</i>&quot; (<i>The New York Times</i>) , is a meditation on death and an embrace of life.<br><br>Jeffrey Lockhart's father, Ross, is a billionaire in his sixties, with a younger wife, Artis Martineau, whose health is failing. Ross is the primary investor in a remote and secret compound where death is exquisitely controlled and bodies are preserved until a future time when biomedical advances and new technologies can return them to a life of transcendent promise. Jeff joins Ross and Artis at the compound to say &quot;an uncertain farewell&quot; to her as she surrenders her body.<br> <br>&quot;We are born without choosing to be. Should we have to die in the same manner? Isn't it a human glory to refuse to accept a certain fate?&quot; These are the questions that haunt the novel and its memorable characters, and it is Ross Lockhart, most particularly, who feels a deep need to enter another dimension and awake to a new world. For his son, this is indefensible. Jeff, the book's narrator, is committed to living, to experiencing &quot;the mingled astonishments of our time, here, on earth.&quot;<br> <br>Don DeLillo's &quot;daring ... provocative ... exquisite&quot; (<i>The Washington Post</i>) new novel weighs the darkness of the world - terrorism, floods, fires, famine, plague - against the beauty and humanity of everyday life; love, awe, &quot;the intimate touch of earth and sun.&quot;<br> <br>&quot;One of the most mysterious, emotionally moving, and rewarding books of DeLillo's long career&quot; (<i>The New York Times Book Review</i>) , <i>Zero K</i> is a glorious, soulful novel from one of the great writers of our time.