Special Topics in Calamity Physics - Hardcover

Pessl, Marisha

3.7

47,061 ratings by Goodreads

9780670916078: Special Topics in Calamity Physics

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0670916072 ISBN 13: 9780670916078

Publisher: Viking, 2006

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Marisha Pessl's Special Topics in Calamity Physics is an unforgettable debut novel that combines the storytelling gifts of Donna Tartt and the suspense of Alfred Hitchcock: a darkly hilarious coming-of-age tale and a richly plotted suspense story, told with dazzling intelligence and wit.

'I wrote this account one year after I'd found Hannah Dead.

I thought I'd managed to erase all traces of that night within myself.

But I was wrong.

Every night when I tried to sleep, I'd close my eyes and see her again, exactly as I found her, hanging from a pine tree by an orange electrical cord, her neck twisted like a tulip stem, her eyes seeing nothing.

Or else that was the problem. They'd seen everything.'

Special Topics in Calamity Physics is a mesmerizing debut. As teenager Blue van Meer tells her story we are hurled into a dizzying world of murder and butterflies, womanizing and wandering, American McCulture, The Western Canon, political radicalism and juvenile crushisms. Structured around a syllabus for a Great Works of Literature class (with hand-drawn Visual Aids), Blue's wickedly funny yet poignant tale reveals how the imagination finds meaning in the most bewildering times, the ways people of all ages strive for connection, and how the darkest of secrets can set us free.

'Beneath the foam of this exuberant debut is a dark, strong drink' Jonathan Franzen, author of, The Corrections

'any [Donna] Tartt fan disappointed that her second novel had little in common with her debut should rush out and buy this book immediately... It's a brilliant debut, guaranteed to join the ranks of The Secret History and The Virgin Suicides as one of those rare books to become a cult hit and instant classic' Sunday Telegraph

'One of the most impressive debut novels I have ever read ... It stops you doing anything apart from reading it ' Independent on Sunday

'Special Topics in Calamity Physics made me stay up all night reading; in the morning it seemed like one of those parties where everyone is too cool for you but you desperately want to know them anyway . . . I loved this book' Audrey Niffenegger, author of The Time Traveler's Wife

Marisha Pessl was born in 1977 and lives in New York. This is her first novel.

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Review:

'A compulsive page turner . . . dark and playful'
-- Thelondonpaper Thelondonpaper

'Beneath the foam of this exuberant debut is a dark, strong drink' -- Jonathan Franzen

'Donna Tartt goes postmodern ... Sharp, snappy fun for the literary-minded' -- Kirkus

‘Brilliant . . . guaranteed to join the ranks of 'The Secret
History' and 'Virgin Suicides' as a cult hit and instant classic' -- Sunday Telegraph

‘Exhilarating synthesis of the classic and the modern, frivolity and fate . . . This skylarking book will leave readers salivating for more' -- New York Times Book Review

‘Supremely inspired ... a whirling, glittering, multifaceted marvel, delivered in an irrepressibly smart and flamboyant new voice ... required reading’ -- New York Times

‘Triumphant. A supremely inspired, dazzling, wildly dynamic,
whirling, glittering, multifaceted marvel, delivered in an irrepressibly
smart and flamboyant new voice’ -- Scotsman

‘Undoubtedly one of the most impressive debut novels I have ever
read’ -- Independent on Sunday

‘Witty and exuberant . . . places the author alongside young, eclectic talents like Dave Eggers, Jonathan Safran Foer and Zadie Smith’ -- Vogue

‘[It] made me stay up all night reading . . . reminded me of my lost, bad-girl days. I loved this book’ -- Audrey Niffenegger, author of The Time Traveler's Wife

Book Description:

A dazzling debut novel that has received rave reviews around the world.

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