Dazzling good literary fiction out this week: ON THE CALCULATION OF VOLUME III by Solvej
On the Calculation of Volume III is available now from the Mail Bookshop
ON THE CALCULATION OF VOLUME III by Solvej Balle (Faber £12.99, 208pp)
Expect to see International Booker shortlisted Balle’s name cropping up on books of the year lists.
The first parts of the Danish author’s projected septology were published in April. We’re now on to volume three, but narrator Tara, a rare book seller, is still facing the same conundrum – she’s stuck living one November day again and again.
In other respects, however, things are progressing. Having thought she was alone in her predicament, this instalment sees her joining forces with others similarly marooned.
The result is that what could have been enervating is, in fact, pacy and, like previous books, packed with a surprising amount of incident.
An exploration of how we effect change, not least the intriguing ending, will ensure Balle’s readers will be signing up for more.
LIGHTBREAKERS by Aja Gabel (Fleet £9.99, 352pp)
Physicist Noah and artist Maya are three years into their relationship, and starting a family is on Maya’s mind.
But three is also the age at which Noah’s daughter from his first marriage died. And when he receives an unsolicited invitation from a sinister billionaire to participate in a time-travel experiment, he can’t resist the opportunity to revisit – and perhaps change – history.
As the couple relocate to the project’s base in the New Mexico desert, and as Noah becomes obsessed with his desperate quest, cracks in their relationship yawn.
It’s no surprise that Leave The World Behind author Rumaan Alam is a fan of this novel which, like Alam’s own, uses a lightly speculative plot to explore substantial themes.
A tense page-turner that is a heartaching story of grief and an uplifting affirmation that, as Larkin had it, what will survive of us is love.
THE MATCHBOX GIRL by Alice Jolly (Bloomsbury £18.99, 416pp)
In this ambitious, tragic and timely novel, the award-winning Jolly excavates the dark hidden history of Dr Asperger, the Austrian physician whose work in the 1940s eventually led to the identification of Asperger syndrome, but who also served the Reich and signed the death warrant of children in his care.
Our inimitable narrator is 12-year-old Adelheid Brummer: elective mute, prodigious writer and avid collector of matchboxes. Her affinity for rules and regulations makes her unwittingly sympathetic to Nazi ideals, but when children start to disappear from the children’s hospital at which she is resident, and at which Dr Asperger works, the terrible truth dawns.
Meticulously researched, this book insists we confront the complexity of truth, uncomfortable as that may be. It’s also a fierce celebration of the messy nature of humanity itself.