The Zero and the One: A Novel

by Ryan Ruby

Overview

A gothic twist on the classic tale of innocents abroad, The Zero and the One is a meditation on the seductions of friendship and the power of dangerous ideas that registers the dark, psychological suspense of Patricia Highsmith's The Talented Mr. Ripley and the intellectual and philosophical intrigue of John Banville's The Book of Evidence.

A shy, bookish scholarship student from a working-class family, Owen Whiting has high hopes of what awaits him at Oxford, only to find himself adrift and out of place among the university's dim aristocrats and posh radicals. But his life takes a dramatic turn when he is assigned to the same philosophy tutorial as Zachary Foedern, a visiting student from New York City. Rich, brilliant, and charismatic, Zach takes Owen under his wing, introducing him to a world of experiences Owen has only ever read about.

From the quadrangles of Oxford to the seedy underbelly of Berlin, they practice what Zach preaches, daring each other to transgress the boundaries of convention and morality, until Zach proposes the greatest transgression of all: a suicide pact. But when Zach's plans go horribly awry, Owen is left to pick up the pieces in the sleek lofts and dingy dives of lower Manhattan. Now he must navigate the treacherous boundary between illusion and reality if he wants to understand his friend and preserve a hold on his once bright future.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781455565184
Publisher:	Grand Central Publishing
Publication date:	03/07/2017
Pages:	272
Product dimensions:	5.10(w) x 7.90(h) x 0.80(d)

About the Author

Ryan Ruby was born in 1983. His fiction and criticism have appeared in a variety of literary magazines including The Baffler,Conjunctions, Dissent, Lapham's Quarterly, and n+1. He has translated two novellas from French for Readux Books. He lives in Berlin.

Editorial Reviews

01/16/2017
It isn’t a spoiler to reveal that one of the protagonists of this deliciously gothic debut—Zach—commits suicide, nor that he has help from Owen, a bookish type he befriends during a study abroad program at Oxford. But what keeps the pages turning is the deliberately paced disclosure of how Zach’s original plan for a suicide pact goes horribly awry. Or, does it? The first chapter finds Owen on his way to New York for Zach’s funeral. Subsequent sections alternate between Owen’s getting to know Zach’s well-off family—especially his fiercely magnetic and mysterious twin sister, Vera—during his weeklong stay in the city and flashbacks to Zach and Owen’s burgeoning bond over existential philosophy, wooing classmates Tori and Claire, and flouting snooty Oxford tradition. Both threads are skillfully plotted and equally intriguing, especially when Vera and the secrets she’s hiding take center stage. The novel’s trick is that none of the characters are especially in the know at any given point—each has a blind spot. Though astute readers might see the ending coming, its over-the-top intensity and sheer depravity still register quite an impact. It’s also a testament to Ruby’s powers of persuasion that questions remain even after the circumstances surrounding Zach’s death are finally unmasked. Who was really at fault? Was it—and what happened afterward—inevitable? An undeniably propulsive read. (Mar.)

Publishers Weekly

"A gripping, intellectually agile book that dresses like a coming of age narrative, but soon reveals itself to be something new, wholly original and philosophically rich. If you've ever read a crime novel and wished for a deeper answer to the mystery - an existential Whydunnit rather than a Whodunnit - then this masterful work by Ryan Ruby will thrill you, and give you much ominous food for thought."—Alexandra Kleeman, author of You Too Can Have A Body Like Mine

"Ryan Ruby has written a brilliant and captivating novel...dark as Patricia Highsmith's Ripley novels, with...a setting that reminds one of Evelyn Waugh, and...texture that evokes P.G. Wodehouse. It's as sharp as a tack, and the pages turn themselves."—Benjamin Hale, author of The Evolution of Bruno Littlemore

"Beautifully written and minutely observed, THE ZERO AND THE ONE brilliantly encapsulates the agony and the ecstasy of the search for meaning in late adolescence."—Jenny Davidson, author of The Magic Circle and Reading Style: A Life in Sentences

"THE ZERO AND THE ONE is brilliantly erudite, deeply engaging, and full of heart. Ryan Ruby has captured something surprising—the ineluctable sadness of youth."—Lauren Elkin, author of Flâneuse: Women Walk the City in Paris, New York, Tokyo, Venice, and London

"A ferocious hybrid of a book: part novel of philosophy, part thriller, completely absorbing. It's the sort of book you read in a day - reminded, between gulps, of The Secret History and The Talented Mr. Ripley - and then spend months thinking about."—Ben Dolnick, author of Zoology and At the Bottom of Everything

"THE ZERO AND THE ONE is a fast-paced, philosophical meditation on what qualifies as the worst crime one can commit."—Booklist

"Skillfully plotted and...intriguing. An undeniably propulsive read." —Publishers Weekly

"This is a rare book — a compulsively readable page-turner that is actually, unapologetically, smart."—LA Review of Books

From the Publisher

2016-12-15
A young man replaces the intensity of loneliness with the intensity of dear friendship to find it can be just as dark.Moving back and forth in time between Owen's present at his best friend Zach's funeral in New York City and their past together at Oxford, this novel escalates to a dramatic conclusion. Owen is a thoughtful and intelligent boy from a working-class British background, the first in his family to go to university and an outcast among his peers; Zach is a wealthy American boy on his year abroad, brilliant and impassioned, with a reckless approach to life. Both are philosophy students, driven to ascertain "Why is life worth living," and both feel immediate kinship with one another. From Zach, Owen learns to be less inhibited, learns how to interact with women, learns that "you can get away with anything, no matter how daft, if you can do it without flinching." Together they have eye-opening bonding experiences. What begins as jocular harmony becomes disturbing, however, as Zach pushes Owen to his limits, finally reaching one with dire consequences. Inspired by a book of German philosophy (excerpts of which open every chapter of this novel, nodding toward what follows), the boys enter into a suicide pact. Zach's reasoning is ostensibly moral, metaphysical, an attempt to circumvent nature and fate, to have control and freedom above all else, to become God. But the role of his twin sister, Vera, and their complex and ardent relationship, may be more influential than Zach is willing to admit to Owen. This Owen learns when the pact backfires and he's left alone to navigate through the murky story that comes to light. The writing, like the characters, is smart and engrossing. Even knowing what's to come makes the shock no less breathtaking. A potent tale of the pull people have upon one another.

Kirkus Reviews