The Circumference of the World

"Advance Praise for The Circumference of the World Publishers Weekly Fall 2023 Top-Ten SF, Fantasy & Horror titles [STARRED REVIEW] ""World Fantasy Award winner Tidhar (Neom) wows with a mind-bending existential adventure that seeks to answer the age-old question of why humanity exists. In 2001 London, four characters converge around the lost science fiction book Lode Stars, written decades earlier by Eugene Charles Hartley. It's rumored that Hartley, who also founded the sketchy Church of God's All-Seeing Eyes, discovered the 'true nature of reality' and encoded it into the novel, which follows heroine Delia as she searches for her father. The novel also posits that humans are reconstructed memories swirling inside black holes, which are the eyes of God, and that alien 'eaters' feed on these reconstituted humans. Only possession of Lode Stars itself can ward off this danger. Albino mathematician Delia Welegtabit, who happens to have the same name as Lode Star's heroine, is drawn into the hunt for the book by her husband, obsessive mathematician Levi. When Levi disappears, Delia turns to Daniel Chase, a rare book collector, to investigate--but then Daniel is himself kidnapped by mobster Oskar Lens, who believes in the book's power and wants it to protect him from the eaters. Toggling between perspectives and the ethereal text of Lode Stars, Tidhar's slippery metafictional tale lyrically entangles scientific fact, mysticism, and mental illness. This is a knockout."" --Publishers Weekly [STARRED REVIEW] ""Inquisitive, daring, and rich with possibilities, The Circumference of the World is a speculative masterpiece."" --Foreword ""Brilliant and bizarre, Lavie Tidhar's The Circumference of the World is many things--but fundamentally it is a love letter to the Golden Age of science fiction, whether or not it deserves it (it does), as well as a love letter to its writers, whether or not they deserve it (they don't. Well, mostly.)."" --Molly Tanzer, author of Vermilion and Creatures of Will and Temper ""Maybe the universe's energy really does get recycled, because this eclectic speculative novel manages to be simultaneously contemporary, nostalgic, and retro in a way that wouldn't be unfamiliar to the SF icons to which it pays tribute.... Tidhar's rich portrayal of the pulpy golden age of science fiction, distinctive characters, and nimble turns of phrase make for a cool confection."" --Kirkus ""Longtime SF readers will easily spot the real-world parallels, but that doesn't stop Tidhar from telling a compelling story of obsession and greed that will make readers think about the nature of reality. VERDICT Readers who fell hard into the metafiction of The Night Ocean by Paul La Farge or the you-are-there gossip of Astounding by Alec Nevala-Lee will likely be as obsessed with this book as the characters are with Lode Stars."" --Library Journal ""Ingeniously constructed and stylistically protean, this seven-course banquet of a novel glistens with the Golden Age of science fiction, even as it nourishes our neurons with a marvelous thought experiment."" --James Morrow, award-winning author of Shambling Towards Hiroshima ""Tidhar wins it all with this magnificently original mind-bender of a novel about a missing husband and a mysterious book that disappears as soon as you read it. The Circumference of the World is two parts Philip K. Dick, two parts Brothers Strugatsky, and six parts blow your f**king mind."" --Junot Díaz, author of The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao ""I always have been partial to dangerous books, and to fictions about dangerous books, and the one at the swirling center of this exhilarating tour de force is a doozy--just like every book by Lavie Tidhar."" --Andy Duncan, three-time World Fantasy Award winner ""Reading a new Lavie Tidhar novel is always a treat. You can count on engaging prose paired with an inventive story and The Circumference of the World certainly fits that bill."" --The Speculative Shelf ""Wow! I can't remember the last book I read like this that wasn't written by Phillip K. Dick! The book was trippy and weird, leaving me wondering what really happened in it in all the best ways."" --Disciples of Boltax ""A creative space opera strewn with Easter eggs from science fiction and fantasy. --Woven Tale Press ""A genre-splitting poetic expression that pays homage to classic science fiction with call-outs and appearances by Campbell, Heinlein, and others."" --Those Crazy Books Praise for Lavie Tidhar On Central Station John W. Campbell Award Winner Neukom Literary Arts Award Winner Arthur C. Clarke Award Finalist NPR Best Books Barnes and Noble Best Science Fiction and Fantasy Locus Recommended Reading List ""Beautiful, original, a shimmering tapestry of connections and images."" --Alastair Reynolds, author of the Revelation Space series ""A dazzling tale of complicated politics and even more complicated souls. Beautiful."" --Ken Liu, author of The Paper Menagerie and The Grace of Kings [STARRED REVIEW] ""Readers of all persuasions will be entranced."" --Publishers Weekly [STARRED REVIEW] ""A fascinating future glimpsed through the lens of a tight-knit community."" --Library Journal On Neom ""An enrapturing conglomeration of philosophy, psychology, and storytelling, the novel melds the what-ifs with a believable and relatable scenario."" --Library Journal [STARRED REVIEW] ""Neom is an extraordinary and compassionate trek into the hearts of AI."" --Foreword ""This is Tidhar at his best: the crazily proliferating imagination, the textures, the ideas, the dazzling storytelling. A brilliant portrait of community and its possibilities."" --Adam Roberts, author of Purgatory Mount"