Boyd, William
The story concerns Lorimer Black a successful loss adjuster, His original name is Milomre Blocj and he comes from a family of Transnistrian gypsies who arrived in London in 1957 and set up an import-export business to Eastern Europe. They now run a taxi cab firm and are always borrowing money off Milo (as they still call him). Lorimer suffers from insomnia and spends many nights at the "Institute for Lucid Dreaming" in search for a cure. He collects antique helmets, listens to African music and is having an affair with Stella Bull, the owner of a scaffolding company. The book includes extracts taken from Lorimers journal The Book of Transfiguration in which he philosophizes on his situation and quotes from Gerard de Nerval.
Hogg, his overbearing boss describes his profession thus: "people turn to insurance to remove uncertainty from areas of their lives. Insurance companies turn to loss adjusters to put uncertainty into insurance, and thus reintroduce uncertainty to insured people".
The narrative itself begins when he turns up at a routine business appointment only to find the man he was to meet has hanged himself. From then on his already complicated life begins to unravel as he falls in love with Flavia Malinervo an unhappily married actress, is assigned to investigate a case of suspected insurance fraud in which a colleague Torquil Helvoir-Jayne is implicated, and suffers the death of his father...