Awards
A
New York Times Notable Book of the Year
A Chicago Tribune Best Book of the Year
A Newsday Best Book of the Year
A Washington Post Best Book of the Year
Synopses & Reviews
A galvanizing story of earthly heartbreak and otherworldly triumph, by the writer John Updike called "one of the most interesting American novelists at work".
It's the spring of 1877 in Washington, D.C., and at the U.S. Naval Observatory, Hugh Allison's plan to project an image through time and space takes on urgent life when the mathematically gifted Cynthia May enters his orbit as one of the observatory's human "computers." But the fate of Hugh's heavenly vision-and of his love affair with Cynthia, a Civil War widow whose beauty has been shadowed by worry and poverty-may be out of his hands, decided instead by an astrologer and by the actions of a dangerously magnetic politician.
Thomas Mallon's moving romance mixes actual historical figures with fictional ones. By combining earthly matters-such as politics and money-with heavenly ones of love and immortality, Mallon evokes a distant time and place with astonishing immediacy and confirms his place as one of our most original and delightful writers.
Review
"Mallon refracts questions of war, woman's rights, and the ordering of the cosmos through the perfect prism of his heroine's mind, adeptly mixing keen social commentary with sheer entertainment." -- Donna Seaman, Booklist
Review
"Fabulous. A novel about a quaint kind of homegrown ambition and optimism that is uniquely American... As lucent as moonlight." -- The Washington Post
Review
"Wicked humor and deep insight... This is a novel that abounds in rewards." -- Frederick Busch, The New York Times Book Review
Review
At the Naval Observatory, astronomers gazing up at the stars discover the two moons of Mars, but they come down with malaria and must contend with Reconstruction politics. Readers see this through the eyes of Cynthia May, a witty, freethinking war widow. Mallon refracts questions of war, woman's rights, and the ordering of the cosmos through the prism of his heroine's mind, mixing keen social commentary with sheer entertainment.
About the Author
Thomas Mallon's books include the novels
Henry and Clara,
Two Moons,
Dewey Defeats Truman, and
Aurora 7; a collection of essays,
In Fact; and his book on the assassination of JFK,
Mrs. Paine's Garage. His work has appeared in
The New Yorker,
The New York Times Magazine,
The American Scholar, and
GQ. He received the National Book Critics Circle award for reviewing in 1998. The recipient of a 2000 Guggenheim Fellowship, he lives in Westport, Connecticut.