Gods Without Men

A branching and multilayered novel by one of our most acclaimed young writers that centers on a couple searching for their young son, lost in the brutal, strangely powerful landscape of the Mojave Desert. Jaz and Lisa Matharu, a young couple from New York City, are plunged into a surreal public hell after their autistic son, Raj, disappears during a vacation to the California desert. But the desert is inexplicable and miraculous, and the fates of the Matharus are bound up with those of others, all converging at an odd, remote town near a rock formation called The Pinnacles; among them are a debauched British rock star, a former member of an extraterrestrial-worshipping cult, and a teenage Iraqi refugee who befriends a young black Marine while playing the role of "Iraqi villager" in a military simulation exercise. Viscerally gripping and intellectually engaging, this is a novel of big ideas, grounded in emotion and centered on flesh-and-blood characters, and a heartfelt exploration of the search for pattern and meaning in a chaotic universe.