The Stonehenge Letters - Softcover

Karlinsky, Harry

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1552452948 ISBN 13: 9781552452943

Publisher: Coach House Books, 2014

Synopsis

While researching why Freud failed to win a Nobel Prize at the Nobel Archives in Sweden, a psychiatrist makes an unusual discovery. Among the piles of papers in the 'Crackpot' file are letters addressed to the executor of Alfred Nobel's will, written by several notable Nobel laureates — including Rudyard Kipling and Marie Curie — each offering an explanation of why and how Stonehenge was constructed. Diligent research uncovers that Alfred Nobel added a secret codicil to his will, a prize for the Nobel laureate who solves the mystery of Stonehenge.

Weaving together a wealth of primary sources — photos, letters, wills — The Stonehenge Letters tells the tale of a fascinating secret competition.

Praise for The Stonehenge Letters:

'This little novel is a delight from its first word to its last. The Stonehenge Letters is by turns thoughtful, whimsical, haunting and laugh-out-loud funny. Reading this book was like skating over the smoothest ice; I was blissfully unaware of the transition from history to fiction and back again'
— Annabel Lyon, author of The Sweet Girl

'In his alarmingly smart and dangerously absorbing Freud-tinged romance/detective story, Harry Karlinsky deploys explosions, earthworms, radioactive particles and a passel of Nobel laureates to reinvent history in the golden age of invention.'
— Zsuzsi Gartner, author of Better Living Through Plastic Explosives

About this title

About the Author:

Harry Karlinsky is a clinical professor of psychiatry at the University of British Columbia. His first novel, The Evolution of Inanimate Objects (HarperCollins UK), was longlisted for the Wellcome Trust Book Prize.

Review:

'A neat mix of fact and fiction, woven together with 20:20 hindsight.' Times Literary Supplement 'Completely engaging and delightful.' The Toronto Star 'The book seamlessly combines the real and the imagined.' Publisher's Weekly 'This little novel is a delight from its first word to its last. In his previous novel, The Evolution of Inanimate Objects, Karlinsky proved himself one of literature's great ventriloquists. In The Stonehenge Letters, his embodiment of Pavlov, Kipling, Roosevelt, Curie, and Alfred Nobel himself is by turns thoughtful, whimsical, haunting, and laugh-out-loud funny. Reading this book was like skating over the smoothest ice; I was blissfully unaware of the transitions from history to fiction and back again.' Annabel Lyon, author of The Sweet Girl 'The Stonehenge Letters is a fantastic book, and well done to the publisher for taking a chance on such a weird hybrid work.' Lit Reactor

About this edition

• Publisher: Coach House Books
• Publication date: 2014
• ISBN 10: 1552452948
• ISBN 13: 9781552452943
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 256