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A predawn call startles Andy Mann from slumber. The voice of a stranger breaks the news that Clayton Smith--childhood friend, world traveler, and flamboyant artist--has committed suicide; the revelation that he made plans for his own funeral a few days later in Hong Kong complicates the mystery, as does the fact that he was finally about to make the trip of his dreams to Inner Mongolia. Andy, by comparison a stay-at-home, chronically enervated Chicagoan plagued by a succession of failed careers, has ended up tending to his father's ailing business. With only a day's notice to prepare for Clayton's funeral, Andy hesitates; his father's business needs his attention, and his friendship with Clayton had been waning for a long time. In the end, though, he does attend, spurred on by Clayton's final cryptic message to him: "I've always been your wild card. Play me."
Reminiscences of the friendship and Clayton's rise from restless world traveler to successful artist in Tokyo add heart to the narrative, as Andy tries to piece together the events that led to Clayton's death. But the mystery evolves into a treasure hunt as it is revealed that Clayton had been on a quest for an exquisite piece of fabric mapping the "invisible world" that lies beyond the senses.
Invisible World sets a lively pace, creating exotic settings peopled by colorful, original characters. Myriad mysteries pepper the adventure: why did Clayton, finally enjoying artistic success, commit suicide? Why did he so desperately want to visit Inner Mongolia? What is the real value of the invaluable antique fabric? With this sure-footed mystery that doubles as an exhilarating expedition to the edges of the world, Stuart Cohen puts a new spin on the old truth that the lines between the material and the spiritual are an absolute blur.
From Booklist
When Chicagoan Andy Mann receives an invitation from an old friend, Clayton Smith, to a "going-away" party in Hong Kong, he does not realize his whole life is about to change. His long-lost friend has not only committed suicide, he has also invited Andy (by virtue of the international dateline) to the funeral set to take place in Hong Kong the next day. At the funeral, everyone receives a gift; Andy's includes a valuable textile, a large sum of money, a warning to trust nobody, and instructions to proceed into China. Anxious to discover the reason for his friend's suicide, Mann follows a series of clues and finds himself immersed in the strange world of textile smuggling, where he ends up battling danger, subterfuge, and duplicitous allies, eventually finding himself in Inner Mongolia and the monastery that houses the greatest textile the world has ever known: "the map of the invisible world." In a captivating, exciting, and enjoyable first novel, Cohen easily evokes the exotic atmosphere of the Far East. Kathleen Hughes
From Kirkus Reviews
Top-quality debut suspense novel, set largely in South America, Hong Kong, Shanghai, Beijing, and Inner Mongolia, that crossbreeds The Third Man with The Maltese Falcon and comes up a whopping winner. Obsession is all when it comes to ancient textiles, be they from Peru or China: ``. . . they retain that dimension of all the lives that have passed through them. They were worn, they were used for making offerings, they were stepped on and washed in streams. It's there. You can feel it. And not just that. A textile is a crystallization of a culture. Of history.'' Thus it is when three men and a woman try to track down a very, very old Chinese map of the Invisible World that has been woven into a piece of tapestry. To add a delicious twist, one of foursome is already dead--or is he really another Harry Lime? The mutual friend who binds them all together is seemingly failed artist Clayton C. Smith, who upon killing himself in Hong Kong has invited them to his funeral, and even sent stateside buddy Andrew Mann plane tickets to Hong Kong and, as it turns out, $100,000. Also on hand for the reading of Clayton's will is Jeffrey Holt, a textiles expert who facilitates various manufacturing projects when not trying to smuggle 2,000-year-old pre-Columbian weavings out of Peru or similar artifacts out of China. The group is joined by Silvia Benedetti Jimenez, a young Argentinean, who has her own textiles agenda and is not to be trusted in a plot full of interlocking double-crosses. Clayton has left Andrew a series of clues he must track down and which at last lead to a monastery in Inner Mongolia where the map of the Invisible World will be found. Perhaps. Bodies never drop, only large chunks of Chinese philosophy and arias about great finds in the empire of cloth, as Cohen puts everything into this Far Eastern masterpiece. -- Copyright ©1997, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.
Book Description
An invitation from a dead man propels a Chicago plumber on a perilous journey from blue-collar America to the exotic Far East and beyond into dangerous, unchartered territory. Stylish, elegant and thrilling, Stuart Cohen's provocative debut draws readers into a treacherous world of artists and smugglers, duplicitous friends and seductive enemies. Invisible World is both a novel of adventure and a mesmerizing exploration of the unseen world.Andrew Mann's mundane existence ends the day he receives an astonishing communication from his jet-setting childhood friend, Clayton Smith. Over the years, Clayton had sent Andy one postcard after another, chronicling his daring worldwide travels as well as his tranformation into a cosmopolitan, successful artist in Hong Kong. Matters take a surreal turn when Clayton sends Andy an airplane ticket to Asia along with an invitation to his own funeral, dispatched shortly before his mysterious suicide. Clayton's posthumous message to his conventional friend: "I've always been a wild card. Play me."Set on an irrevocably life-changing course, the reluctant Chicagoan becomes entangled in Clayton's treasure hunt for the perfect textile, an exquisite fabric mapping the "Invisible World" that lies beyond our senses. The lines between the material world and the invisible one lose distinction on this challenging, ciruitous quest, bringing Andy to the awe-inspiring vastness of Inner Mongolia... and the discovery of the strength and power within every man.Romantic and exciting, Stuart Cohen's graceful and provocative novel is a stunning literary journey. Peopled with intense, fascinating characters set in rich, exotic locales, and accented with touches of magical realism, this exhilarating expedition to the edge of the world will leave readers inspired.
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