The Business

A poisoned bonbon, a bitter fairy taleIndependent

Kate Telman is a senior executive officer in The Business, a powerful and massively discreet transglobal organisation. Financially transparent, internally democratic and disavowing conventional familial inheritance, the character of The Business seems, even to Kate, to be vague to the point of invisibility. It possesses, allegedly, a book of Leonardo cartoons, several sets of Crown Jewels and wants to buy its own State in order to acquire a seat at the United Nations.

Kates job is to keep abreast of current technological developments and her global reach encompasses Silicon Valley, a ranch in Nebraska, the firms secretive Swiss headquarters, and a remote Himalayan principality. In the course of her journey Kate must peel away layers of emotional insulation and the assumptions of a lifetime. She must learn to keep her world at arms length. To take control, she has to do The Business.

Praise for Iain Banks:

The most imaginative novelist of his generationThe Times

His verve and talent will always be recognised, and his work will always find and enthral new readersKen MacLeod, Guardian

His work was mordant, surreal, and fiercely intelligent Neil Gaiman

An exceptional wordsmithScotsman