Speculative novel layers Groundhog Day with existential dreaminess
Solvej Balle’s protagonist lives the same day on repeat
VICTOR HABBICK VISIONS/SCIENCE PHOTO LIBRARY/Alamy
On the Calculation of Volume (parts I and II)
Solvej Balle, translated (from Danish) by Barbara J. Haveland
Faber & Faber (UK); New Directions (US)
On his 70th birthday, Albert Einstein received a manuscript from his friend, the logician Kurt Gödel, that mathematically demonstrated something he had conjectured, but never proven: according to his general theory of relativity it was possible for space-time to bend and close in on itself, creating a loop to the past.
It was an extraordinary development, but one that troubled many…
