{"product_id":"the-assignment-or-on-the-observing-of-the-observer-of-the-observers-9780226174464","title":"The Assignment: or, On the Observing of the Observer of the Observers","description":"\u003cp\u003e • Author(s): Friedrich Dürrenmatt\u003cbr\u003e • Publisher: University of Chicago Press\u003cbr\u003e • Publisher Imprint: University of Chicago Press\u003cbr\u003e • BISAC: Thrillers - Espionage\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eIn Friedrich D�rrenmatt's experimental thriller \u003ci\u003eThe Assignment\u003c\/i\u003e, the wife of a psychiatrist has been raped and killed near a desert ruin in North Africa. Her husband hires a woman named F. to reconstruct the unsolved crime in a documentary film. F. is soon unwittingly thrust into a paranoid world of international espionage where everyone is watched-including the watchers. After discovering a recent photograph of the supposed murder victim happily reunited with her husband, F. becomes trapped in an apocalyptic landscape riddled with political intrigue, crimes of mistaken identity, and terrorism.\u003cbr\u003e F.'s labyrinthine quest for the truth is D�rrenmatt's fictionalized warning against the dangers of a technologically advanced society that turns everyday life into one of constant scrutiny. Joel Agee's elegant translation will introduce a fresh generation of English-speaking readers to one of European literature's masters of language, suspense, and dystopia. \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e \"The narrative is accelerated from the start. . . . As the novella builds to its horripilating climax, we realize the extent to which all values have thereby been inverted. \u003ci\u003eThe Assignment\u003c\/i\u003e is a parable of hell for an age consumed by images.\"-\u003ci\u003eNew York Times Book Review\u003c\/i\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e \"His most ambitious book . . . dark and devious . . . almost obsessively drawn to mankind's most fiendish crimes.\"-\u003ci\u003eChicago\u003c\/i\u003e \u003ci\u003eTribune\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e \u003ci\u003e \u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e \"A tour-de-force . . . mesmerizing.\"-\u003ci\u003eVillage Voice\u003c\/i\u003e","brand":"University of Chicago Press","offers":[{"title":"Paperback","offer_id":47586109685911,"sku":"9780226174464","price":2155.0,"currency_code":"INR","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0666\/3471\/1191\/files\/9780226174464.webp?v=1774962671","url":"https:\/\/atlanticbooks.com\/products\/the-assignment-or-on-the-observing-of-the-observer-of-the-observers-9780226174464","provider":"Atlantic Books","version":"1.0","type":"link"}