Reader recommendation: Remainder

Monitor readers share their favorite book picks.

After seeing Tom McCarthy's book, "C" on the shortlist for the Man Booker Prize and having no prior knowledge of the author, I picked up his earlier book, Remainder. It is an enjoyable and fascinating book about a man who, after an accident, finds himself unable to remember any details of the accident, but also the beneficiary of a large financial settlement (provided he doesn't discuss the accident, which is easy seeing as he has no memory of it). He sets out to use his new wealth to "re-create" some fleeting visions he has of who he was – where he lived, who he interacted with – by purchasing an entire apartment building, and hiring actors to do recurring mundane tasks 24/7, to help him remember and focus his thoughts, to figure himself out with no clues.