{"product_id":"solenoid-9781646052028","title":"Solenoid","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eWINNER of the Dublin Literary Award 2024 and the Los Angeles Times Book Prize 2022\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eNAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF 2022 by the \u003ci\u003eNew Yorker\u003c\/i\u003e, \u003ci\u003ePublishers Weekly\u003c\/i\u003e, \u003ci\u003eThe Financial Times\u003c\/i\u003e, \u003ci\u003eWords Without Borders\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eA highly-acclaimed master work of fiction from Mircea Cărtărescu, author of \u003ci\u003eBlinding, Solenoid \u003c\/i\u003eis\u003ci\u003e \u003c\/i\u003ean existence (and eventually a cosmos) created by forking paths.\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cp\u003eBased on Cărtărescu's own experience as a high school teacher, \u003ci\u003eSolenoid\u003c\/i\u003e begins with the mundane details of a diarist's life and quickly spirals into a philosophical account of life, history, philosophy, and mathematics. The novel is grounded in the reality of Romania in the late 1970s and early 1980s, including frightening health care, the absurdities of the education system, and the misery of family life, while on a broad scale \u003ci\u003eSolenoid\u003c\/i\u003e's investigations of other universes, dimensions, and timelines attempt to reconcile the realms of life and art. The text includes sequences in a tuberculosis preventorium, encounters with an anti-death protest movement, a society of dream investigators, and an extended visit to the miniscule world of dust mites living on a microscope slide. One character asks another: When you rush into the burning building, will you save the newborn or the artwork?\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cp\u003eCombining fiction with autobiography and history--Nikola Tesla and Charles Hinton, for example, appear alongside the Voynich manuscript--\u003ci\u003eSolenoid\u003c\/i\u003e searches for escape routes through the alternate dimensions of life and art, as various monstrous realities erupt within the present.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAbout the Author\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eMircea Cărtărescu\u003c\/b\u003e is a writer, professor, and journalist who has published more than twenty-five books. His work has received the Formentor Prize (2018), the Thomas Mann Prize (2018), the Austrian State Prize for Literature (2015), and the Vilenica Prize (2011), among many others. His work has been translated in twenty-three languages. His novel \u003ci\u003eBlinding\u003c\/i\u003e was published by Archipelago in Sean Cotter's English translation.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eSean Cotter\u003c\/b\u003e is a translator and professor of literature and translation at the University of Texas at Dallas. A previous National Endowment for the Arts Translation Fellow, Cotter is the translator of 11 books, including T.O. Bobe's \u003ci\u003eCurl\u003c\/i\u003e and Nichita Stănescu's \u003ci\u003eWheel with a Single Spoke and Other Poems\u003c\/i\u003e, which was awarded the Best Translated Book Award for Poetry. His translation of Magda Cârneci's \u003ci\u003eFEM\u003c\/i\u003e, a finalist for the PEN Translation Award, was published by Deep Vellum in 2021.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cbr\u003e","brand":"Deep Vellum Publishing","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":50575689056530,"sku":"9781646052028","price":17.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0831\/4771\/8930\/files\/img_31d3f197-ea5c-4e17-921b-a88a2b93fcbc.jpg?v=1731986715","url":"https:\/\/surprise-castle.myshopify.com\/products\/solenoid-9781646052028","provider":"Surprise Castle","version":"1.0","type":"link"}