Synopses & Reviews
An eccentric scientist lies dead in his coffin reflecting on the past and his last experiment collecting random incidents from human history and finding the underlying pattern that connects them. His reveries lead him to tell two other tales one of a doomed lighthouse keeper on a Swedish island and the other of a rivalry among Renaissance artists and finally he tells a startling tale from his own youth.
For readers of Michael Ondaatje and Isak Dinesen, Erik Fosnes Hansen's imaginative narration brings an original and searching inquiry into why things happen the way they do and suggests a theory of "seriality" a half-science about the power of human connections.
Review
"Mr. Hansen tells three spellbinding stories, set in different places and in different centuries....The narratives are inlaid with jewels of arcane information: the behavior of bees, the history of lighthouses, the technique of fresco painting. When we close this book we know everything and nothing. That's the point." Dallas Morning News
Review
"Favorably, rightly compared with Isak Dinesen's classic 'gothic tales,' and a great critical success in Europe: a rich, replete demonstration of the art of storytelling and the universality of human loving and striving." Kirkus Reviews
Review
"Hansen holds the reader's attention, assuredly weaving together his multiple story lines into a dense tapestry composed of richly detailed characters." Booklist
About the Author
Erik Fosnes Hansen, born in 1965, is the author of Psalm at Journey's End, a number-one bestseller in his native Norway. He lives in Oslo.