The 7th Function of Language

<p><strong>'One of the funniest, most riotously inventive and enjoyable novels you'll read this year' - <em>Observer</em></strong><br /><br />Roland Barthes is knocked down in a Paris street by a laundry van. It's February 1980 and he has just come from lunch with Francois Mitterrand. Barthes dies soon afterwards. History tells us it was an accident. <br /><br />But what if it were an assassination? What if Barthes was carrying a document of unbelievable, global importance? A document explaining the seventh function of language&mdash;an idea so powerful it gives whoever masters it the ability to convince anyone, in any situation, to do anything. <br /><br />Police Captain Jacques Bayard and his reluctant accomplice Simon Herzog set off on a chase that takes them from the corridors of power to backstreet saunas and midnight meetings. What they discover is a worldwide conspiracy involving the President, murderous Bulgarians and a secret international debating society.</p>