The Crying of Lot 49 is a 1966 novel by Thomas Pynchon. It is about a woman named Oedipa Maas who, in the process of acting as the executrix for her lover's estate, discovers among his possessions a set of bizarrely misprinted stamps. In trying to trace their origins and potential value, she accidentlly begins to unravel the rivalry between two medieval mail distribution companies, the Trystero and Thurn und Taxis -- a bitter and deadly rivalry that to her surprise appears to continue into the modern era. Or does it? She can't be sure she isn't just the subject of an elaborate prank being played upon her from beyond the grave by her late lover.