TRANSMISSION

Hari Kunzru's second novel is a satirical tale of a young man's journey from India to California, where he hopes to work as a computer programmer. Arjun Mehta arrives in California jobless but hopeful, and, though he survives (barely) a bad case of culture shock, he finally finds a job but is laid off much too. Broke and desperate, Arjun is considering returning home in disgrace, when he hits on a scheme to save himself: he injects a computer virus into the company's system, hoping to be reinstated when he comes up with a fix. But the virus (which bears the image of his adored Bollywood star Leela Zahir) gets out of control.... A New York Times Notable Book for 2004.