In Search of Klingsor The International Bestselling Novel

by Volpi, Jorge

• ISBN13: 9781416575139
• ISBN10: 1416575138
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2007-08-01
• Publisher: Scribner

Summary

In his international bestsellerIn Search of Klingsor,Jorge Volpi takes us from the Institute of Advanced Study to the heart of Hitler's Germany, where the line between truth and lies is all but dissolved.Mysterious, seductive, and immediately engrossing, this startlingly accomplished thriller explores the nexus between science and human nature and how they shaped the world in the aftermath of World War II.In 1940, Francis Bacon, a brilliant young American physicist, is invited to join the prestigious institute at Princeton, the world's foremost physics research facility. But a series of personal indiscretions forces him to accept a different, more sinister, assignment: uncover "Klingsor," Hitler's top adviser on the scientific work in the Third Reich, including the race to create the first atomic bomb.Bacon's efforts to expose the truth lead him to Gustav Links, a survivor of the attempted coup against Hitler. With Link's help, he continues researching postwar Germany -- in an era when a secret was really a secret and a lie wasn't necessarily a sin -- and falls into a complicated relationship with an alluring woman. His search for Klingsor, an ominous and seemingly omnicient adversary, is part mystery, part psychological puzzle, part witty intellectual game.In Search of Klingsorplaces real people in speculative historical fiction, combining the ingenuity of a scientific investigation with the suspense of a great espionage novel.

Author Biography

An author, scholar, and diplomat, Jorge Volpi was born in Mexico in 1968 and has a B.A. in law and a Masters in Mexican literature. He is the author of nine novels and collections and is the former cultural attaché and director of the Mexican Culture Institute in Paris. He currently the director of the Festival Internacional Cervatino.

Table of Contents

Preface

Laws of Narrative Motion

All narratives are written by a narrator

All narrators offer one, singular truth

All narrators possess a motive for narrating Crimes of War

Hypotheses: From Quantum Physics to Espionage

On Bacon's Childhood and Early Years

On Von Neumann and the War

On Einstein and Love

On Gödel's Theory and Marriage

On Bacon's Departure for Germany Brief Autobiographical Disquisitions: From Set Theory to Totalitarianism

Infancy and the End of an Era

Youth and Irrationality

The Arithmetics of Infinity

Liberty and Lust

The Search for the Absolute The Uranium Circle

Parallel Universes

The Quest for the Holy Grail

Laws of Criminal Motion

All crimes are committed by a criminal

Every crime is the portrait of a criminal

Every criminal possesses a motive Max Planck, or a Lesson in Faith

Reasons for Discouragement

Johannes Stark, or a Lesson in Infamy

The Game of War

Werner Heisenberg, or a Lesson in Sadness

The Dangers of Observation

Erwin Schrödinger, or a Lesson in Desire

The Laws of Attraction

The Liar's Paradox

The Dimensions of Affection

Niels Bohr, or a Lesson in Will

Chain Reaction

The Uncertainty Principle

Hidden Variables

Kundry's Curse

Laws of Traitorous Motion

All men are weak

All men are liars

All men are traitors

On Those Forgotten by History

The Conspiracy

On the Rules Governing Chance

The Bomb

On the Secrets of Destiny

The Realm of the Occult

On the Death of Truth

The Betrayal

On the Privileges of Insanity

Klingsor's Revenge

End Note

Table of Contents provided by Publisher. All Rights Reserved.