The Imaginary 20th Century

Fiction. California Interest. In 1901, a woman named Carrie, while traveling in Europe, selects four men to seduce her, each with a version of the coming century. At least this is how the legend comes down to us. Inevitably, the future spills off course. We navigate through the suitors' worlds; follow Carrie on her misadventures; discover what she and her lovers forgot to notice. Gradually, we find out that Carrie's life is implicated in her uncle's world of business and political espionage. For over forty years, Harry Brown was hired by oligarchs to erase crimes that might prove embarrassing. Thus, as he often explains, espionage is a form of seduction. In 1917, Harry sets up a massive archive of his niece's world. In 2004, Carrie's archive was unearthed and assembled in Los Angeles.