It was reason enough to be content that Edgar Falk had settled here in Singapore, at Sentosa Cove: the birds. The giant cormorants—one, at least, always seemed to be waiting there. His shorebird, the only animal that followed him everywhere he went in the world, beginning at Stinson Beach. He could rename himself after the bird, even. Alexander B. Cormorant.
Or he might accept his name at present—the Mummy. Hoary, but conveying a kind of legacy.
In practice, he was a surgeon, delving through faces to what lay underneath, to look out through the eyes. There, to learn the only important thing about most men: what cards they held. He might even call himself Noah Behringer, for amusement’s sake. He wondered if Edgar Falk would recognize that name, or whether it would be lost on him …
Flashman, Nooseman, Anonymous, Abide.
Ich bin ein Vegetarierin.
We’re all Unknown Tragics on this bus.
Or a Vietnam vet, employed as a hydrotherapy attendant at Alta Bates, and looking on as a helpless white kid spunked up a whirlpool, mess you’d be obliged to clean up, damn. If he quested back he might even retrieve the man’s name …
Anyone, anyone, but “Alexander Bruno”—words for one who no longer existed.
Thanks
Dr. Adam Duhan
Dr. Michael Blumlein
Dr. Marie Warburg
Dr. Laurence Rickels
Dr. Atul Gawande
Dr. Michael Zöllner
Dr. Chris Offutt
Dr. Amy Barrett
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Copyright © Jonathan Lethem 2017
Cover © Jon Gray
Jonathan Lethem has asserted his right to be identified as the author of this Work in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988
First published in the United States with the title A Gambler’s Anatomy: A Novel by
Doubleday, a division of Penguin Random House LLC, New York, in 2016
First published in the United Kingdom by Jonathan Cape in 2017
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A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
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