A rich parody of the parallels between the jargon of football and the jargon of battle - and a touch of cold-war existentialism - makes this powerful novel as hilarious as it is relevant.

During a season of unprecedented success, Gary becomes increasingly fixated on the threat of nuclear war. Both frightened and fascinated by the prospect, he listens to his team-mates discussing match tactics in much the same terms as generals might contemplate global conflict. But as the terminologies of football and nuclear war – the language of end zones – become interchanged, the polysemous nature of words emerges, and DeLillo forces us to see beyond the sterile reality of substitution.

This clever and playful novel is a timeless and topical study of human beings' obsession with conflict and confrontation.

Part of the Picador Collection, a series showcasing the best of modern literature.

"America's greatest living writer." - Observer

"Nobody, it seems, could write better than this. No one could have a clearer vision of the micro-circuitry of post-modern life." - Evening Standard

"Powerfully funny, oblique, testy, and playful, tearing along in dazzling cinematic spurts . . . A masterful novel." - Washington Post