Headhunter is a novel by Canadian writer Timothy Findley. It was first published by HarperCollins in 1993.
Plot summary
The novel is set in a dystopic Toronto, Ontario buffeted by a mysterious plague called sturnusemia, which is believed to be carried by starlings. Against this backdrop Lilah Kemp, a schizophrenic spiritualist "of intense but undisciplined powers", accidentally sets Kurtz free from page 92 of Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness and is forced to find a Marlow to defeat him.
Kurtz becomes head of the Parkin Psychiatric Institute (based on the real Clarke Institute of Psychiatry) and travels among the city's elites, including a "Club of Men" which is in fact a child pornography ring. Marlow, meanwhile, is a staff psychiatrist at the Parkin.
Although the reader is clearly meant to see the parallels between Findley's Kurtz and Marlow and Conrad's original characters, the book is deliberately ambiguous about whether Lilah Kemp has really performed this act of literary magic, or is merely crazy enough to think she has.
Reception
Headhunter received starred reviews from Booklist and Publishers Weekly.
Booklist<nowiki/>'s Emily Melton referred to the novel as "a powerful, brilliantly conceived, spellbinding story that will mesmerize readers from first page to last", Publishers Weekly also highlighted how Findley [...] creates witty literary allusions", pointing specifically to a character who "is a contemporary Emma Bovary" and "another [...] named Jay Gatz".
Headhunter won the Toronto Book Award in 1994.