num_pages: 304
description: A novel about fear of the futureand the future of fearNew York City the near future: Mitchell Zukor a gifted young mathematician is hired by a mysterious new financial consulting firm FutureWorld. The business operates out of an empty office in the Empire State Building; Mitchell is employee number two. He is asked to calculate worst-case scenarios in the most intricate detail and his schemes are sold to corporations to indemnify them against any future disasters. This is the cutting edge of corporate irresponsibility and business is booming. As Mitchell immerses himself in the mathematics of catastropheecological collapse war games natural disastershe becomes obsessed by a cultures fears. Yet he also loses touch with his last connection to reality: Elsa Bruner a friend with her own apocalyptic secret who has started a commune in Maine. Then just as Mitchells predictions reach a nightmarish crescendo an actual worst-case scenario overtakes Manhattan. Mitchell realizes he is uniquely prepared to profit. But at what cost? At once an all-too-plausible literary thriller an unexpected love story and a philosophically searching inquiry into the nature of fear Nathaniel Richs Odds Against Tomorrow poses the ultimate questions of imagination and civilization. The future is not quite what it used to be.
language: English
title: Odds Against Tomorrow
publisher: Farrah, Straus and Giroux