“A literary phenomenon nearly forty years in the making, and a speculative masterwork” (New York Magazine), Balle’s epic On the Calculation of Volume in Book III introduces new thrills to the adventures of Tara Selter’s endless November day
SHORTLISTED FOR THE NATIONAL BOOK AWARD FOR TRANSLATED LITERATURE
In the marvelous third installment of Balle’s “astonishing” (The Washington Post) septology, Tara’s November 18th transforms when she discovers that she is no longer alone in her endless autumnal day. For she has met someone who remembers, and who knows as well as she does that “it is autumn, but that we’re not heading into winter. That spring and summer will not follow. That the reds and yellows of the trees are here to stay. That yesterday doesn’t mean the seventeenth of November, that tomorrow means the eighteenth, and that the nineteenth is a day we may never see.” Where Book I and II focused on a single woman’s involuntary journey away from her life and her loved ones and into the chasm of time, Book III brings us back into the realm of companionship, with all its thrills, odd quirks, and a sense of mutual bewilderment at having to relearn how to exist alongside others in a shared reality. And then of course, what of Tara’s husband Thomas, still sitting alone day after day, entirely unawares, in their house in Clarion-sous-Bois, waiting for his wife to return? Blending poetry and philosophical inquiry with rich reflections on our discombobulating times, Balle’s On the Calculation of Volume asks us to consider: What is a single person’s responsibility to humanity and to the preservation of this world?
From the Publisher
ASIN : B0F7B2QQ9P
Publisher : New Directions
Accessibility : Learn more
Publication date : November 18, 2025
Language : English
File size : 649 KB
Screen Reader : Supported
Enhanced typesetting : Enabled
X-Ray : Not Enabled
Word Wise : Enabled
Print length : 175 pages
ISBN-13 : 978-0811238403
Page Flip : Enabled
Book 3 of 4 : On the Calculation of Volume
Best Sellers Rank: #12,779 in Kindle Store (See Top 100 in Kindle Store) #125 in Contemporary Women Fiction #327 in Contemporary Women’s Fiction #469 in Science Fiction (Books)
Customer Reviews: 4.6 4.6 out of 5 stars (26)