The Chemistry of Tears - Hardcover

Carey, Peter

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 057127997X ISBN 13: 9780571279975

Publisher: Faber & Faber, 2012

Synopsis

An automaton, a man and a woman who can never meet, a secret love story, and the fate of the world are all brought to life in this hauntingly moving novel from one of the finest writers of our time.

London 2010, Catherine Gehrig, conservator at the Swinburne museum, learns of the unexpected death of her colleague and lover of thirteen years. As the mistress of a married man she has to grieve in private. One other person knows their secret, the director of the museum, who arranges for Catherine to be given a special project away from prying eyes. Mad with grief, the usually controlled and rational Catherine discovers a series of handwritten notebooks telling the story of the man who originally commissioned the extraordinary and eerie automata she has been asked to bring back to life.

With a precocious new assistant, Amanda, at her side, she starts to piece together both the clockwork puzzle and the story of the mechanical creature which was commissioned in 19th century Germany by an English man, Henry Brandling, as a 'magical amusement' for his consumptive son. Having been asked to leave his home by his wife, Henry turns his hurtful departure into an adventure that he records for his young child. But it is Catherine Gehrig, in a strangely stormy and overheated London nearly two hundred years later, who will find comfort and wonder in reading Henry's story. And it is the automata, in its beautiful, uncanny imitation of life, that will link two strangers confronted with the mysteries of life and death, the miracle and catastrophe of human invention and the body's astonishing chemistry of love and feeling.

About this title

Review

`Everything is burnished with vitalisingly poetic images. The Chemistry of Tears isn't only about life and inventiveness: it overflows with them.' --Peter Kemp, SUNDAY TIMES

`I loved this book for its mysteries, its hinted back stories, its reserve, and its underlying complexity.' --Lucy Daniel, DAILY TELEGRAPH

`Characters that beguile and convince, prose that dances or is as careful as poetry, an inventive plot that teases and makes the heart quicken or hurt ... this tender tour de force of the imagination succeeds on all fronts.' --Rebecca K. Morrison, INDEPENDENT

`It is remarkable, and rather cheering, to find that the fine bloom on his writing, the sharp, green bite of emotion and the pellucid observation seem entirely unaffected by success.' --Jane Shilling, EVENING STANDARD

`Yet another triumph for its creator, breath-catchingly beautiful and tender in places, with strange and shocking revelations slowly revealed.'
--Camilla Pia, THE LIST

'The book that has haunted me all year is Peter Carey's The Chemistry of Tears. Carey's intricately engineered novel explores the connection between heartsickness and precise and intellectually demanding manual labour.' --Jane Shilling, THE STANDARD, Books of the Year

Book Description

Following the recent success of Parrot and Olivier in America comes another wonderfully rich tale with historical themes from the twice Booker-winner.

Edition details

• Publisher: Faber & Faber
• Publication date: 2012
• ISBN 10: 057127997X
• ISBN 13: 9780571279975
• Binding: Hardcover
• Language: English
• Number of pages: 288