We may receive an affiliate commission from anything you buy from this article. Joseph O'Neill, author of "Netherland" (winner of the PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction) and "The Dog," returns with "Godwin" (Pantheon), a novel about a bizarre scheme to find the next international soccer star. Read an excerpt below.
"Godwin" by Joseph O'Neill Prefer to listen? Audible has a 30-day free trial available right now. A few years ago, my phone turned into a device for strangers and robots to butt in between me and whatever I'm doing. Any given caller was very likely a financial-verbal intruder.
The simple buzzing of a phone began to frighten me. I decided to shun phone calls systematically, with an exception being of course made for Sushila—and even Sushila knows that, unless it's urgent, a text is optimal. This decision was overdue.
The general history of the telephone call, it can safely be said, is a grim one. Who can begin to measure or even grasp the volume of the calamities reported or produced by this sound-transmission system? It was with very good reason, I now understand, that my father invariably commanded me to ignore the ringing beige gadget stationed in the living-room bookcase. Together he and I would wait, all activity put on hold, for the shrill to stop, an interlude of suspense that could last a minute or more, because in those landline days there was nothing to stop a caller from sticking at it indefinitely, and often the house would be filled with that eerie, seemi.
