Trinity

Louisa Hall

ISBN 10: 1982554851 ISBN 13: 9781982554859

Publisher: HarperCollins B and Blackstone Audio, 2018

Synopsis

From the acclaimed author of Speak comes a kaleidoscopic novel about Robert Oppenheimer--father of the atomic bomb--as told by seven fictional characters

J. Robert Oppenheimer was a brilliant scientist, a champion of liberal causes, and a complex and often contradictory character. He loyally protected his Communist friends, only to later betray them under questioning. He repeatedly lied about love affairs. And he defended the use of the atomic bomb he helped create, before ultimately lobbying against nuclear proliferation.

Through narratives that cross time and space, a set of characters bears witness to the life of Oppenheimer, from a secret service agent who tailed him in San Francisco, to the young lover of a colleague in Los Alamos, to a woman fleeing McCarthyism who knew him on St. John. As these men and women fall into the orbit of a brilliant but mercurial mind at work, all consider his complicated legacy while also uncovering deep and often unsettling truths about their own lives.

In this stunning, elliptical novel, Louisa Hall has crafted a breathtaking and explosive story about the ability of the human mind to believe what it wants, about public and private tragedy, and about power and guilt. Blending science with literature and fiction with biography, Trinity asks searing questions about what it means to truly know someone, and about the secrets we keep from the world and from ourselves.

About this title

About the Author

Louisa Hall grew up in Philadelphia. After graduating from Harvard, she played squash professionally while finishing her premedical coursework and working in a research lab at the Albert Einstein Hospital. She holds a PhD in literature from the University of Texas at Austin, where she currently teaches literature and creative writing, and supervises a poetry workshop at the Austin State Psychiatric Hospital. She is the author of the novel The Carriage House, and her poems have been published in the New Republic, Southwest Review, Ellipsis, and other journals.

Review

Hall excels at creating distinct characters whose voices illuminate their own lives and challenges, as well as the historical period that saw Oppenheimer's fall from grace. Taken together, they only burnish the endlessly fascinating enigma of the flawed genius who became known as the father of the atomic bomb.

-- "Publishers Weekly"

Boldly imagined, multilayered...Bring[s] Oppenheimer, an often aloof, conflicted man, to vivid life...Lushly written, this is an ambitious, unsettling novel that takes on big issues in a passionate, personal way.

-- "Kirkus Reviews"

An intelligent and sweeping account...An affecting meditation on the ways in which we betray others and, in the process, ourselves.

-- "Karan Mahajan, author of The Association of Small Bombs"

A brilliant canvas revealing life's complexities and the enigmatic character who inspired the narrative...Highly recommended.

-- "Library Journal"

With war, McCarthyism, and nuclear proliferation as backdrop, Hall's observers paint a picture of not just one man but of humanity...Each narrator has a unique and convincing voice in this compelling novel centered on the man who saw himself as 'Death, the destroyer of worlds.'

-- "Booklist"

About this edition

• Publisher: HarperCollins B and Blackstone Audio
• Publication date: 2018
• ISBN 10: 1982554851
• ISBN 13: 9781982554859
• Binding: Audio CD
• Number of pages: 1