Headhunter (book)

Headhunter is a 1993 novel by Timothy Findley.

Related Topics:
1993 - Timothy Findley

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The novel is set in a dystopic Toronto buffeted by a mysterious plague called sturnusemia, which is believed to be carried by starlings. Against this backdrop, a schizophrenic spiritualist "of intense but undisciplined powers", Lilah Kemp, accidentally sets Kurtz free from page 92 of Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness and is forced to find a Marlow to defeat him.

Related Topics:
Toronto - Starling - Schizophrenic - Joseph Conrad - Heart of Darkness

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Kurtz becomes head of the Parkin Psychiatric Institute and travels among the city's elites, including a "Club of Men" which is in fact a cover for a child pornography ring. Marlow, meanwhile, is a staff psychiatrist at the Parkin.

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Although the reader is clearly meant to see the parallels between Findley's Kurtz and Marlow and Conrad's original characters, the book is deliberately ambiguous about whether Lilah Kemp has really performed this act of literary magic, or is merely crazy enough to think she has.

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