Radiance: A Novel - Softcover

Scholz, Carter

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0312311362 ISBN 13: 9780312311360

Publisher: Picador, 2003

Synopsis

Born from the threat of nuclear weapons comes a program to build an impenetrable defence against them. The technical obstacles are enormous, the costs exorbitant, and the results dubious. Philip Quine didn't come to the Lab to work on weapons, but his expertise with X-rays leads him to Superbright, in theory an orbital battle-station to shoot down missiles, in reality little more than a spotty test data. Superbright is only the beginning, as Quine is drawn further away from the pure physics he set out to do and deeper into the machinations of those who would use the Lab for their own monetary or ideological advantage.

About this title

Review:

"Ingenious...Scholz's extraordinary language--his ear for befuddled dialogue and scientific obfuscation, his resonant, haunted landscapes--cracks the book open and allows its light to blaze forth." --Salon.com

"Radiance is a tour-de-force of obsessive, microscopic realism and a vibrantly satirical phantasmagoria at once. It gives a terrifying glimpse of a war at the juncture of science and politics, one never fully fought or abandoned, only covered in denial and fatigue. It reads like a de-classified document of the human soul." --Jonathan Lethem, author of Motherless Brooklyn

About the Author:

Carter Scholz lives in Berkeley, California.

About this edition

• Publisher: Picador
• Publication date: 2003
• ISBN 10: 0312311362
• ISBN 13: 9780312311360
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 400