Short description
The decisions of a few industrial leaders shake the roots of capitalism and reawaken man's awareness of himself as an heroic being.
Long description
Ayn Rand's epochal novel, first published in 1957, has been a bestseller for more than four decades as well as an intellectual landmark. It is the story of a man who said that he would stop the motor of the world--and did. Was he a destroyer or the greatest of liberators? Why did he have to fight his battle, not against his enemies but against those who needed him most--and his hardest battle against the woman he loved? What is the world's motor--and the motive power of every man? Tremendous in its scope, this novel presents an astounding panorama of human life--from the productive genius who becomes a worthless playboy...to the great steel industrialist who does not know that he is working for his own destruction...to the philosopher who becomes a pirate...to the woman who runs a transcontinental railroad...to the lowest track worker in her Terminal tunnels. Peopled by larger-than-life heroes and villains, charged with towering questions of good and evil, Atlas Shrugged is Ayn Rand's masterpiece. It is a philosophical revolution told in the form of an action thriller.
Review
'Who is John Galt?' This is the immortal query that is central to this incredible mystery story about the murder and rebirth of one man's spirit. Rand explores why a man will fight battles against the people he loves, in her endeavour to express her vision of human existence. Known the world over for her philosphical works on objectivism, Rand also shows herself to be an extremely accomplished writer of fiction. (Kirkus UK)