During a season of unprecedented success, Gary becomes increasingly fixated on the threat of nuclear war. Both frightened and fascinated by the prospect, he listens to his team-mates discussing match tactics in much the same terms as generals might contemplate global conflict. But as the terminologies of football and nuclear war – the language of end zones – become interchanged, the polysemous nature of words emerges, and DeLillo forces us to see beyond the sterile reality of substitution.

This clever and playful novel is a timeless and topical study of human beings' obsession with conflict and confrontation.

Part of the Picador Collection, a series showcasing the best of modern literature.

America's greatest living writer. * Observer *
Nobody, it seems, could write better than this. No one could have a clearer vision of the micro-circuitry of post-modern life. * Evening Standard *
Powerfully funny, oblique, testy, and playful, tearing along in dazzling cinematic spurts . . . A masterful novel. * Washington Post *

Don DeLillo is the acclaimed author of bestselling novels and plays. His work includes White Noise, Libra, End Zone and Underworld. He has won the National Book Award, the Jerusalem Prize and the Irish Times International Fiction Prize.