A Hologram for the King - Dave Eggers

I picked this up out of curiosity, having been intrigued by Eggers' writing before, but didn't have hugely high hopes of it as I wasn't initially drawn to the subject matter (a US salesman in Saudi Arabia). In fact it was a very human and powerful story, exploring one man's alienation and disorientation as he repeatedly fails to make the most of chances for meaningful connections, while watching his hopes for the future slip away in circumstances he can barely understand, let alone control. I was particularly struck by the chillingly terse portrayal of his shame after making a mistake that could have had fatal consequences, and the description of him "feeling devastated, as always, by himself, his inability to do what he should do when he should do it".