Square Wave - Mark de Silva torrent

"I don't know of anything like [Square Wave]. [Mark de Silva is] doing something that I think few people have dared to do. The book fascinated me... it is a book that I found quite exciting, it's a book that I would recommend to people who love to read novels and see what a novel can do when it steps off the beaten track. [Square Wave is] an intelligent climate-thriller... possibly leading to a new way of thinking about the novel, or thinking about how the novel can be meaningful. It was thrilling. I think it's really an interesting book and I'll be reading it again and again."
—Michael Silverblatt, 'Bookworm' on KCRW

Synopsis:
Carl Stagg, a writer researching imperial power struggles in 17th century Sri Lanka, ekes out a living as a watchman in a factionalized America where confidence in democracy has eroded. Along his nightly patrol, Stagg finds a beaten prostitute, one in a series of monstrous attacks. Suspicious of his supervisor’s intentions, Stagg seeks the truth with a fellow part-time watchman, Ravan, who hails from a family developing storm-dispersal technologies jointly funded by the Indian and American governments.

The watchmen’s discoveries put a troubling complexion on Stagg’s research, giving it new shape and impetus, just as the weather modification project begins to appear less about dispersing storms than weaponizing them.

By gracefully weaving a study of the psychological effects of a militarized state upon its citizenry with topics as diverse as microtonal music and cloud physics, Square Wave signals the triumphant arrival of a young writer certain to be considered one of the most ambitious and intelligent of his generation