New York City, the near future: Mitchell Zukor works on the cutting edge of corporate irresponsibility, and business is booming. A gifted mathematician, he spends his days in Manhattan calculating worst-case scenarios for FutureWorld, a consulting firm that indemnifies corporations against potential disasters. As Mitchell immerses himself in the mathematics of catastrophe, he exchanges letters with Elsa Bruner - a college crush with an apocalyptic secret of her own - and becomes obsessed by a culture's fears. When his predictions culminate in a nightmarish crescendo, Mitchell realizes he is uniquely prepared to profit from the disaster. But at what cost?

Any sentence from Rich is worth reading, any thought worth pondering in this ambitious novel of ideas. --The New York Times Book Review (Editors' Choice)

An irresistible literary thriller...Rich mines the terror of our times. --Rolling Stone

The opposite of disaster, a knockout of a book by a young writer to keep your eye on from now on...As terrifically described as any of the best science fiction we have. --Alan Cheuse, NPR's All Things Considered

Scarily prescient and wholly original. --Elissa Schappell, Vanity Fair

Rich's descriptions of the vagaries of both nature and human nature are stark, fresh, and convincing, full of surprise and recognition as both good comedy and good terror must be. --Cathleen Schine, The New York Review of Books

Nathaniel Rich has turned disaster porn into high art. --Annalee Newitz, Slate

A brilliantly told novel, by turns terrifying, touching, and wildly funny. --Stephen King on The Mayor's Tongue

An author who could well become one of the defining writers of his generation. --The Sunday Telegraph on The Mayor's Tongue

A spare masterpiece. --The Boston Globe on The Mayor's Tongue