Jeffrey Lockhart's father, Ross, is a billionaire with a younger wife, Artis, whose health is failing. Ross is the primary investor in a secret compound where death is controlled until new technologies will offer to return the patients to life. Jeffrey grapples with Artis's choice to enter the compound, instead of embracing the life she has left.

Zero K was a book fought for my many NUBClubbers who are fans of DeLillo's other work, and the group found that this work did not disappoint. Zero K is very much in DeLillo's wheelhouse -- it's a meditation about death and what it means to be mortal, in this case through the story of a cryogenic experimental attempt at immortality, and the main character Jeffrey as he comes to terms with his mother being frozen in that place. The space is highly metaphorical, which strong religious overtones and some characters that stand in for different philosophies on what is happening in the cryptic lab, but it hangs together under the narrative conceit that it's a kind of preparatory space for people who want to take the cryogenic journey. DeLillo delivers on what you expect -- the prose is stunning in places, and Jeffrey's winding through his life as he experiences both the stark metaphysical reality of the lab contrasted with the vivid and cacophonous variety of life works well to stage the core question on the table -- should Jeff's father Ross join the experiment, and how should Jeff feel about all of this. NUBClub found all of this quite compelling, and while it didn't top DeLillo's other work (White Noise being the local favorite, while Nick argued heavily for Underworld), we all felt that the exploration that the setting and character's reflections offered made a compelling picture. A good, ambivalent theme with some top-notch writing is pretty much what we live for here at NUBClub, so DeLillo's latest was a winner for us.