On the Calculation of Volume, Book I

De: Solvej Balle

Narrado por: Elizabeth Liang

Utterly riveting, Solvej Balle’s On the Calculation of Volume (Book I) is the grand opening of her speculative fiction septology, winner of the 2022 Nordic Council Literature Prize (Scandinavia’s most important literary award) for being “a masterpiece of its time.”

A NEW YORKER BEST BOOK OF 2024

A WASHINGTON POST NOTABLE BOOK OF 2024

LONGLISTED FOR THE 2024 NATIONAL BOOK AWARD FOR TRANSLATED LITERATURE

Tara Selter, the heroine of On the Calculation of Volume, has involuntarily stepped off the train of time: in her world, November eighteenth repeats itself endlessly. We meet Tara on her 122nd November 18th: she no longer experiences the changes of days, weeks, months, or seasons. She finds herself in a lonely new reality without being able to explain why: how is it that she wakes every morning into the same day, knowing to the exact second when the blackbird will burst into song and when the rain will begin?

Balle is hypnotic and masterful in her remixing of the endless recursive day, creating curious little folds of time and foreshadowings: her flashbacks light up inside the text like old flash bulbs.

The first volume’s gravitational pull—a force inverse to its constriction—has the effect of a strong tranquilizer, but a drug under which your powers of observation only grow sharper and more acute. Give in to the book's logic (its minute movements, its thrilling shifts, its slant wit, its slowing of time) and its spell is utterly intoxicating.

Solvej Balle’s seven-volume novel wrings enthralling and magical new dimensions from time and its hapless, mortal subjects. As one Danish reviewer beautifully put it, Balle’s fiction consists of writing that listens. “Reading her is like being caressed by language itself.”

©2020, 2024 Solvej Balle; Barbara J. Haveland (P)2024 New Directions Publishing Corp.

Engaging story of reliving the day over and over

I liked the whole premise and I liked her writing. I just wanted more of an ending but this is volume 1.

When time stands still

On the Calculation of Volume 1 is literary Groundhog’s Day. An antique book seller stuck on the same day made me think of the many ways we move through time. A quick study that has left me thinking more than most books.

A Day Like Any Other Day

Shortlisted for the 2025 Man Booker international prize, this is volume one of a woman’s experience of November 18, 365 days of that same day. Like Groundhog Day, the film, yes, a bit, but not initially played for laughs as the film does. Experimental, first person narrated, short, increasingly interesting.

Compelling, original, moving

Hands down one of the most compelling and original books I've ever read. Very emotional in an understated way.

A surprising read.

Level of detail concerning ordinary things and events. Sounds like it could be boring but it’s not. Fascinating.