Written by the author of "Libra", which won the Aer Lingus International Fiction Prize, this novel is about words and images, novelists and terrorists. It is haunted by the intermingled spirits of such diverse figures as Andy Warhol and Mao Zedong. Bill Gray, a famous reclusive novelist, emerges from his isolation when he becomes the key figure in an event staged to force the release of a poet hostage in Beirut. Mao II explores a world in which the novelist"s power to influence the inner life of a culture now belongs to bomb-makers and gunmen.