The Runner - Scarlett Thomas

The mind-expanding new thriller from the bestselling author of�The Sleepwalkers�and�The End of Mr. YHe's running for his life. And he's running out of time. On a sun-soaked Greek island, Jay is on the run. He's been hunted since he was twenty years old: a contract on his life traded like a commodity, rising and falling with the price of Bitcoin.�Stranded with no passport, loyalty points as his only currency and an assassin in hot pursuit, Jay's only hope is to escape on a catamaran with a crew on their way to perform an exorcism on a dictator's private island. When it becomes clear that his shipmates are even more dubious than they first seemed, Jay has to run again - this time into the arms of the beautiful Ellie, who is either his doom or his salvation.�Caught in a web of high-finance, con-artists, the Book of Jonah and ultramarathons, Jay will have to choose between love and survival,�and run for his life!Darkly funny, sexy, exciting, philosophical and enthralling,�The Runner�is an unmissable literary treat from Britain's most exciting novelist. Praise for Scarlett Thomas`Muriel Spark's disreputable niece'�Spectator�`She's a genius' Douglas Coupland`Fiction roaring on all cylinders'�Guardian`Gloriously dark and tangled' Observer`A dark, twisty, savagely . a smart, layered, stinging look at power and its abuse'�The Times`A work of peculiar, gonzo genius'�The New York Times`Like a darker, funnier The White Lotus' James Smythe�`Brilliant, savage and hilarious' Bidisha Mamata'A twisty Gothic tale of vertiginous depths and haunting power'�Sandra Newman`Ingenious and original' Philip Pullman