The Names

Don DeLillo · b. 1936 · USA

Why it matters

American expatriates drift through Athens and the Gulf, trailing a risk-analyst husband and rumors of a cult that murders its victims to match their initials to the place-names. DeLillo's early style at its coolest: language itself treated as the object of dread.

At a glance

Elliptical dialogue and an oblique, slow-building plot ask for patient attention.