The 7th Function of Language

<p><b>'One of the funniest most riotously inventive and enjoyable novels you&#146;ll read this year' - <i>Observer</i></b><br><br>Roland Barthes is knocked down in a Paris street by a laundry van. It&#146;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 &#150; 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>