Table of Contents
Acknowledgments vii
1 Politics and Literature 1
2 The "Original Position" in Jose Saramago's Blindness 25
3 Absurdity and Revolt in Cormac McCarthy's The Road 47
4 The Bystander's Tale: Gil Courtemanche's A Sunday at the Pool in Kigali 69
5 Fiction and the Study of Slums: Anosh Irani's The Cripple and His Talismans 89
6 Narrative and Memory in Haruki Murakami's Kafka on the Shore, Günter Grass's Crabwalk and Andre Brink's The Rights of Desire 101
7 The Politics of Victimhood in John Le Carre's Absolute Friends 125
8 The Quest for Identity in Sayed Kashua's Let It Be Morning 141
9 Political Escapism in Contemporary Israel: David Grossman's To the End of the Land 163
10 Body and Mind in Margaret Atwood's Oryx and Crake 185
11 A Canadian Alternative to the Clash of Civilisations: Yann Martel's Life of Pi 207
Notes 227
Bibliography 243
Index 249