The Cyclist

The Cyclist is a stunningly original novel about food and political violence. It’s a psychological ride into the tropics of terror, to the edges of our national and existential borders: the ones set at birth, the ones we are born into. The enigmatic narrator is a young trainee of the Academy, a terrorist group in the present-day Middle East. This unnamed, transnational pawn has a single mission: to deliver a bomb by bicycle to a hotel, where it will explode, killing hundreds of civilians. But his story is anything but simple. Combining surrealism, tragedy and humor, The Cyclist is a journey into the unsettling workings of the terrorist mind. Even as the narrator ponders his mission, only his musings about food and love reveal clues to his nationality and his agenda. But can such a zestful connoisseur also be a true agent of political violence? Witty and wildly inventive, The Cyclist is a remarkable debut from a gifted novelist.