{"product_id":"awake-9780811230810","title":"Awake","description":"In a shuttered bedroom in ancient Italy, the sleepless Pliny the Elder lies in bed obsessively dictating new chapters of his \u003cem\u003eNatural History\u003c\/em\u003e to his slave Diocles. Fat, wheezing, imperious, and prone to nosebleeds, Pliny does not believe in spending his evenings in repose: No--to be awake is to be alive. There's no time to waste if he is to classify every element of the natural world in a single work. By day Pliny the Elder carries out his many civic duties and gives the occasional disastrous public reading. But despite his astonishing ambition to catalog everything from precious metals to the moon, as well as a collection of exotic plants sourced from the farthest reaches of the world, Pliny the Elder still takes immense pleasure in the common rose. After he rushes to an erupting Mount Vesuvius and perishes in the ash, his nephew, Pliny the Younger, becomes custodian of his life's work. But where Pliny the Elder saw starlight, Pliny the Younger only sees fireflies.\u003cbr\u003e In masterfully honed prose, Voetmann brings the formidable Pliny the Elder (and his pompous nephew) to life. \u003cem\u003eAwake\u003c\/em\u003e is a comic delight about one of history's great minds and the not-so-great human body it was housed in.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAbout the Author\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eVoetmann, Harald:\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e - \u003cstrong\u003eHarald Voetmann\u003c\/strong\u003e is a Danish author, born 1978. He has written novels, short stories, poetry and a monograph on the Roman poet Sulpicia. He studied Latin at the University of Copenhagen and is also a translator of classical Latin literature, notably Petronius and Juvenal. \u003cem\u003eAwake\u003c\/em\u003e is the first in his series of three historical novels about the urge to understand and conquer Nature.\u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eOttosen, Johanne Sorgenfri:\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e - \u003cstrong\u003eJohanne Sorgenfri Ottosen\u003c\/strong\u003e is a Danish translator born in 1986. She currently lives in Copenhagen where she also works as an illustrator and literary editor.","brand":"New Directions Publishing Corporation","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":50670296072466,"sku":"9780811230810","price":10.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0831\/4771\/8930\/files\/img_efe822ff-7bc2-4b94-ab45-55d670d1cbd5.jpg?v=1733775627","url":"https:\/\/surprise-castle.myshopify.com\/products\/awake-9780811230810","provider":"Surprise Castle","version":"1.0","type":"link"}