Madness Is Better Than Defeat

'This is one of the most purely enjoyable novels I've read in years - by turns sad, moving, thoughtful, intriguing, clever, enlightening, surprising and laugh-out-loud funny - which is more than enough. I can't think of any type of reader who wouldn't enjoy it' Irish Independent

'It reminded me of a Coen brothers film... I found it enchanting, and I was happy to turn every page... I really enjoyed it' Tom Sutcliffe, BBC Radio 4 Saturday Review

Conspiracy, insanity, ingenuity and adventure collide in the new novel by the Man Booker-longlisted, Granta Best of Young British Novelist Ned Beauman. #MadnessIsBetter

In 1938, two rival expeditions set off for a lost Mayan temple in the jungles of Honduras, one intending to shoot a screwball comedy on location there, the other to disassemble the temple and ship it back to New York. A seemingly endless stalemate ensues, and twenty years later a rogue CIA agent sets out to exploit it as a geopolitical pawn - unaware that the temple is the locus of grander conspiracies than anyone could have imagined.

Showcasing the anarchic humour, boundless imagination and unparalleled prose of one of the finest writers of his generation, this is a masterful novel that teases, entertains and dazzles in equal measure.

PRAISE FOR NED BEAUMAN

A Granta Best Young British Novelist

'Seriously funny and seriously intelligent at the same time' Daily Telegraph

'Dazzlingly inventive' The Times

'A singular, and almost recklessly gifted, young writer' Time

'A force to be acknowledged in the here and now' Dazed and Confused

'Gobsmackingly clever' Vanity Fair

'Playful, arresting, unnerving opulent, rude and - above all - deliciously, startlingly, exuberantly fresh' Guardian

#MadnessIsBetter