O Mandarim

A poor clerk in Lisbon is offered the oldest dirty deal in the world: ring a bell, a mandarin dies in China, and the fortune is yours — no witnesses, no blood on the carpet, only a man you will never meet. Eça de Queirós takes that thought experiment and makes it flesh: satire, fever, and a conscience that will not stay in Europe once the gold arrives. Go on. It is only one life. And it is so very far away.