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The Circumference of the World
- Author
- Lavie Tidhar
- Publisher
- Blackstone Publishing
- Publish Date
- 5 September 2023
- Run Time
- 6 hours 21 minutes
- Format
- Audiobook
What to expect
Caught between realities, a mathematician, a book dealer, and a mobster desperately seek a notorious book that disappears upon being read.
Only the author, a rakish sci-fi writer, knows whether his popular novel is truthful or a hoax. In a story that is cosmic, inventive, and sly, multi-award-winning author Lavie Tidhar (Central Station) travels from the emergence of life to the very ends of the universe.
Delia Welegtabit discovered two things during her childhood on a South Pacific island: her love for mathematics and a novel that isn’t supposed to exist. But the elusive book proves unexpectedly dangerous. Oskar Lens, a science fiction–obsessed mobster in the midst of an existential crisis, will stop at nothing to find the novel. After Delia’s husband, Levi, goes missing, she seeks help from Daniel Chase, a young, face-blind book dealer.
The infamous novel Lode Stars was written by the infamous Eugene Charles Hartley: legendary pulp science-fiction writer and founder of the Church of the All-Seeing Eyes. In Hartley’s novel, a doppelganger of Delia searches for her missing father in a strange star system. But is any of Lode Stars real? Was Hartley a cynical conman on a quest for wealth and immortality, creating a religion he did not believe in? Or was he a visionary who truly discovered the secrets of the universe?
Critics Review
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“Expertly delivered by a trinity of talent…This collaborative effort results in a well-orchestrated listening experience.”
AudioFile
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“[A] melancholy, beautiful, and yet improbably light-touch narrative.”
New Scientist
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“Inventive, thought-provoking, audacious and, as ever with Tidhar, superbly readable, this is where his genius lies.”
The Guardian (London)
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“An ambitious and ambiguous book showing Tidhar at top form.”
Chicago Review of Books
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“Lyrically entangles scientific fact, mysticism, and mental illness. This is a knockout.”
Publishers Weekly (starred review)
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“Tidhar’s rich portrayal of the pulpy golden age of science fiction, distinctive characters, and nimble turns of phrase make for a cool confection.”
Kirkus Reviews
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“A compelling story of obsession and greed that will make readers think about the nature of reality.”
Library Journal
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“Tidhar wins it all with this magnificently original mind-bender of a novel.”
Junot Díaz, Pulitzer Prize–winning author
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“Can we all just admit now that Lavie Tidhar’s a genius?”
Daryl Gregory, author of Pandemonium
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“Ingeniously constructed and stylistically protean, this seven-course banquet of a novel glistens with the Golden Age of science fiction, even as it nourishes our neurons with a marvelous thought experiment.”
James Morrow, author of Shambling towards Hiroshima
User Reviews
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Details
- Author
- Lavie Tidhar
- Narrator
- Justine Eyre, Stefan Rudnicki, Maxwell Caulfield
- Duration
- 6 hours 21 minutes
- Release Date
- 5 September 2023
- ISBN
- 9781982574987
- Format
- Audiobook
- Publisher
- Blackstone Publishing
- Genre
- Science fiction: space opera, Science fiction
Synopsis
Caught between realities, a mathematician, a book dealer, and a mobster desperately seek a notorious book that disappears upon being read. Only the author, a rakish sci-fi writer, knows whether his popular novel is truthful or a hoax. In a story that is cosmic, inventive, and sly, multi-award-winning author Lavie Tidhar (Central Station) travels from the emergence of life to the very ends of the universe.Delia Welegtabit discovered two things during her childhood on a South Pacific island: her love for mathematics and a novel that isn’t supposed to exist. But the elusive book proves unexpectedly dangerous. Oskar Lens, a science fiction–obsessed mobster in the midst of an existential crisis, will stop at nothing to find the novel. After Delia’s husband, Levi, goes missing, she seeks help from Daniel Chase, a young, face-blind book dealer.The infamous novel Lode Stars was written by the infamous Eugene Charles Hartley: legendary pulp science-fiction writer and founder of the Church of the All-Seeing Eyes. In Hartley’s novel, a doppelganger of Delia searches for her missing father in a strange star system. But is any of Lode Stars real? Was Hartley a cynical conman on a quest for wealth and immortality, creating a religion he did not believe in? Or was he a visionary who truly discovered the secrets of the universe?
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