Overview

The classic novel by ""Irish master"" (New Yorker) and Booker Prize-winner John Banville brings to life the dramatic and surprising world of sixteenth-century astronomer Nicolas Copernicus and the theory that would shatter the medieval view of the universe. Sixteenth-century Europe is teeming with change and controversy: wars are being waged by princes and bishops and the repercussions of Luther are being felt through a convulsing Germany. In a remote corner of Poland, a modest canon is practicing medicine and studying the heavens, preparing a theory that will shatter the medieval view of the universe. In this astonishing work of historical imagination, John Banville offers a vivid portrait of a man of painful reticence. For, in a world that is equal parts splendor and barbarism, an obscure cleric who seeks ""the secret music of the universe"" poses a most devastating threat. ""A tour de force... Exciting, beautifully written and astonishingly redolent of the late medieval world."" --The Times

Full Product Details

9781335145895

Table of Contents

Reviews

"""The Irish master."" --New Yorker ""One periodically rereads a [Banville] sentence just to marvel at its beauty, originality and elegance."" --USA TODAY ""John Banville deserves his Booker Prize."" --Los Angeles Times Book Review ""[Banville's] books are like baroque cathedrals, filled with elaborate passages."" --Paris Review ""A grand writer with a seductive style."" --Marilyn Stasio, New York Times Book Review ""Banville is a master at capturing the most fleeting memory or excruciating twinge of self-awareness with riveting accuracy."" --People ""A brilliant stylist."" --Christian Science Monitor ""Represents a watershed in contemporary Irish writing."" --Colm Tóibín ""John Banville is the heir to Nabokov."" --Sunday Telegraph ""One of the best novelists in English."" --Edmund White, Guardian ""He cannot write an unpolished phrase, so we read him slowly, relishing the stream of pleasures he affords."" --The Independent (UK) ""The heir to Proust."" --Daily Beast ""A great storyteller."" --Observer ""Banville's ventriloquism is word-perfect."" --Vulture"

Author Information

JOHN BANVILLE was born in Wexford, Ireland, in 1945. He is the author of numerous novels, including The Sea, which won the 2005 Booker Prize, and the DI Quirke novels written under the pseudonym Benjamin Black. In 2011 he was awarded the Franz Kafka Prize, in 2013 he was awarded the Irish PEN Award for Outstanding Achievement in Irish Literature and in 2014 he won the Prince of Asturias Award, Spain's most important literary prize. He lives in Dublin.

Tab Content 6

Customer Reviews

Recent Reviews

Countries Available