Senseless - Hardcover

Fitch, Stona

3.68

216 ratings by Goodreads

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1569472688 ISBN 13: 9781569472682

Publisher: Soho Pr Inc, 2001

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A man finds himself in a Kafkaesque nightmare when he is inexplicable kidnapped. Elliott Gast is married, an ex-government bureaucrat, and enjoying himself in Brussels, networking with tech executives, when he is unceremoniusly snatched from the street--kidnapped. He is taken to a high floor in a deserted highrise somewhere in Belgium and confined in a totally empty, white apartment. Even the windows are painted over in white. Like an Orwellian torture chamber, it is always light bcecause, as Elliott will learn, the black cables dnagling from the ceiling and elsewhere, are cameras broadcasting his ordeal worldwide on the boundless internet. Anyone can tune in at will. He is a digitized castaway., a lonely survivor watched by millions as he is dealt with by his captors who are convinced he is to blame. For what, he asks, as they come for him.

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About the Author:

Stona Fitch lives in Concord, MA, and is at work on his third novel. His first, Strategies for Success, was published in 1992.

From Publishers Weekly:

Small like a stick of dynamite, Fitch's second novel delves into the horrific experience of a hostage forced to endure torture that ultimately deprives him of his five senses. Eliott Gast, an American trade representative, is kidnapped in Brussels by a group of terrorists who oppose the European economic union. At first, Gast finds his captivity comfortable. He's housed in a clean, three-room apartment, is fed regularly and receives plenty of books to occupy his time. That all comes to an abrupt end on day seven, when the terrorists storm in and mutilate Gast's tongue. As he recuperates, Gast notices a network of black cables that frequently drop from the ceiling and seem to track his every move. The terrorist leader, nicknamed Blackbeard because he always wears a pirate's mask, tells Gast the cables are cameras used to broadcast his ordeal around the world on the Internet. Millions of people are watching. Blackbeard tells Gast that when enough of them donate money to the cause, he'll be released. Over the next several weeks, as described in highly disturbing detail, Gast is made to lose his hearing, his touch, his smell and part of his vision. Fitch's otherwise grim, one-sitting novel, his first in nine years (after Strategies for Success), has many moments of poignant reflection as Gast ponders his past and future. He also wonders about the gruesome use the Internet is being put to an issue that Fitch resolves with brevity and ingenuity.

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