The Dean

Lars Gustafsson's best novel: a philosophical thriller about the power of evil -gripping, intelligent and also very funny, from the first page to the last.

Spencer C. Spencer, professor of philosophy and advisor to a Texan college's dean in matters of general development, has fled. Hiding out at a run-down motel on the edge of the desert, he writes down the incredible events of the last two years – and then disappears forever. After all, this story is about murder. But, first and foremost, it is about the dean, a wheelchair bound Vietnam veteran who meditates upon the role of evil in the world. It is also about Mary Elizabeth who seeks to write a modern Faust, with a football trainer as the main protagonist. And about evolution, vanished writers, jealousy, suicidal university presidents, chance and necessity, life and death. In Lars Gustafsson's philosophical thriller, the loftiest ideas and the deepest problems are treated with breathtaking lightness. Spencer C. Spencer's papers are hidden bethind the spare wheel of his car. Of Spencer himself there is not a trace.