{"product_id":"solenoid-by-mircea-cartarescu-9781646052028","title":"Solenoid","description":"\u003cdiv class=\"book-description\"\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eA highly-acclaimed master work of fiction from Crtrescu, author of \u003ci\u003eBlinding\u003c\/i\u003e: an existence (and eventually a cosmos) created by forking paths.\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eBased on Crtrescu's own role 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. One character asks another: when you rush into the burning building, will you save the newborn or the artwork? On a broad scale, the novel's investigations of other universes, dimensions, and timelines reconcile the realms of life and art.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eThe novel is grounded in the reality of late 1970s\/early 1980s Communist Romania, including long lines for groceries, the absurdities of the education system, and the misery of family life. The text includes sequences in a tuberculosis sanatorium, an encounter 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.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eCombining fiction with autobiography and history—the scientists Nicolae Tesla and George Boole, for example, appear alongside the Voynich manuscript—\u003ci\u003eSolenoid\u003c\/i\u003e ruminates on the exchanges possible between the alternate dimensions of life and art, as various, monstrous dimensions erupt within the Communist present.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"Hachette New Zealand Ltd","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":46714898907372,"sku":"9781646052028","price":44.99,"currency_code":"NZD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0705\/7784\/8556\/files\/1338823482774.jpg?v=1754374875","url":"https:\/\/bookhero.live\/products\/solenoid-by-mircea-cartarescu-9781646052028","provider":"Book Hero","version":"1.0","type":"link"}