The Business

The Business is a novel by the Scottish writer Iain Banks, published in 1999. Kate Telman is a 'level 3' executive in the Business, a vast business empire. During her sabbatical year, she comes to suspect that some of her colleagues are stealing from the organisation, and investigates. The book starts with a 4 a.m. phone call from Mike Daniels to Kathryn (Kate) Telman. He has been drugged, and about half of his teeth randomly and expertly extract... more

The Business is a novel by the Scottish writer Iain Banks, published in 1999. Kate Telman is a 'level 3' executive in the Business, a vast business empire. During her sabbatical year, she comes to suspect that some of her colleagues are stealing from the organisation, and investigates. The book starts with a 4 a.m. phone call from Mike Daniels to Kathryn (Kate) Telman. He has been drugged, and about half of his teeth randomly and expertly extracted, just before an important meeting in Japan. The Business is a powerful (yet democratic) multinational commercial organisation, secretive (but not too sinisterly so), and very long-lived. It predates the Roman Catholic Church, and descends from a consortium of merchants in the Roman Empire which it even briefly owned (it hired a man to become emperor, but he lasted less than a month before being assassinated). It is now considering taking over a country in order to gain a seat at the United Nations. The story follows the heroine, Kate Telman... less