On the Calculation of Volume (Book I)

Balle (According to the Law: Four Accounts of Mankind) launches a speculative septology with this astounding chronicle of a rare book dealer’s struggle over the course of one year as she wakes up each morning only to repeat the same day. The trouble begins during a trip to Paris, where Tara Selter has traveled on November 17 from the home in northern France she shares with her husband and business partner, Thomas, with plans to return on the 19th. On the 18th, she calls Thomas with an update, then badly burns her hand on a radiator. She nurses the wound, and after waking up the next morning in her hotel room, she discovers from the newspaper and her cellphone that the date hasn’t changed. When she gets home, Thomas believes she’s returned a day early. The next morning, and each morning after that, she tries to explain to Thomas what’s happened, as he doesn’t remember. Among the stunning qualities of Balle’s brilliant narrative is the way it suspends judgment, simultaneously sustaining the possibility that Tara has gone insane and that she really is caught in a “rift in time.” There are no easy answers in this deeply mysterious tale. Readers won’t be able to look away. (Nov.)