Uncertain Weights and Measures

De: Jocelyn Parr

Narrado por: Inez Summerville

Moscow, 1921. Tatiana and Sasha meet in a bookstore the night it is bombed and fall in love. Tatiana is a promising young scientist, who soon follows her mentor to the Institut Mozga to study the source of genius. Sasha is an artist, who drifts aimlessly in a world increasingly indifferent to his art.

When her mentor suddenly dies, Tatiana begins to speculate about the shadowy circumstances of his death. Disconcerted, she plunges into doubt—about her work as a scientist, her naïveté about the Revolution, her faith in the state, and her relationship with Sasha.

Uncertain Weights and Measures takes place in the heady days of post-Revolution Russia when belief in a higher purpose was everything. Jocelyn Parr’s beautifully incisive prose captures the ambiance of 1920s Moscow and the frisson of real-life events while also spinning a captivating tale of a love torn apart by ideology and high-stakes politics.

©2017 Jocelyn Parr (P)2023 Goose Lane Editions

Reseñas de la Crítica

“The story of a Russia—and a love—at the precipice, poised between dreaming and giving in. As in Ferrante’s Neapolitan novels or Bellow’s Seize the Day, Parr’s characters seem to move under the surface of the page—breathing, changing, flawed, and resilient.”—Sean Michaels, author of Us Conductors

“An illuminating and assured debut. Parr deftly incorporates her historical research into an affecting story about a young woman grappling with the tense intersections between art and science, politics and idealism, duty and love.”—Catherine Cooper, author of White Elephant

“A historical novel that feels refreshingly contemporary, Uncertain Weights and Measures exposes the tensions between ideology and conviction, politics and art, truth and power. This remarkable debut novel is both a compelling love story and a thoughtful exploration of the human heart and mind.”—Johanna Skibsrud, author of Quartet for the End of Time