Book of the Week: SEVEN, OR, HOW TO PLAY A GAME WITHOUT RULES by Joanna Kavenna
A riotious comic novel of ideas, Seven tells the story of an unnamed philosopher plunged into the strange world of Theodoros Apostalakis: dentist, poet, pursuer of lost things, and obsessive player of ‘Seven’, a revered board game whose champions struggle to hold onto what is most valuable in human life in the face of Artificial Intelligence. Blending academic satire, travel writing, farce, and philosophy into a singular, intoxicating brew, Seven is a literary novel that stretches the boundaries of the form.
"Joanna Kavenna. What a writer." —Ali Smith
"The most brilliant novel I've read in ages, part academic satire, part philosophy of AI and gaming, all hubris-puncturing wisdom worn with such levity that I was cackling from start to finish." —Adam Rutherford
"Philosophical concepts and dizzying speculations on the nature of reality have always featured in Kavenna's novels, but here she ramps up the comedy, interleaving erudite playfulness with characters who are as believable as they are eccentric." —Suzi Feay, Financial Times