Solenoid

WINNER OF THE DUBLIN LITERARY AWARD 2024 AND THE LOS ANGELES TIMES BOOK PRICE FOR FICTION 2022

Based on Cartarescu's own experience as a teacher, Solenoid submerges us in the mundane details of a diarist's life and spirals into an existential account of history, philosophy and mathematics. Grounded in the reality of communist Romania, it grapples with frightening health care, the absurdities of the education system and the struggles of family life, while investigating other universes and forking paths.

In a surreal journey like no other, we visit a tuberculosis preventorium, an anti-death protest movement, a society of dream investigators and a minuscule world of dust mites living on a microscope slide. Combining fiction with autobiography and history, Solenoid searches for escape routes through the alternate dimensions of life and art, as various monstrous realities erupt within the present.

Translated by Sean Cotter

Format/pages: paperback / 640 pages

ISBN: 9781805333197

Publisher: Pushkin Press

Year: 2024