Cosmopolis

This is the story of a spectacular fall. One man, one day, the trembling of the world’s financial markets. Eric Packer, 28, emerges from his $104 million, three-story penthouse and climbs into his customized white stretch limo. On this April day in the year 2000, he is a man on two missions: to speculate catastrophically on a fall in the yen, and to get his hair cut across town.
His journey to the barber is a contemporary odyssey, funny and compelling. Held up in traffic by a presidential motorcade, a pop idol’s funeral, a movie shoot, and a violent political rally, Eric receives a series of visitors—they are experts in security, technology, currency, finance, and theory. Sometimes he gets out of the car for an intimate encounter, sometimes he doesn’t.
DeLillo's insight into the influence of money on every aspect of our culture—from art and real estate to politics and time itself—is astonishing. And Eric Packer is a poignant figure who belatedly discovers his own humanity. Cosmopolis, DeLillo's thirteenth novel, is alive, moving, and a masterful portrait of its time.