The Expert of Subtle Revisions

A Novel

By: Kirsten Menger-Anderson

Narrated by: George Ellington, Gryphon Corpus, Michael Crouch

A thrilling historical mystery about a young woman searching for her father, a young man trying to solve an impossible problem, and the quest for the power to transcend time.

“From Vienna to San Francisco, I was swept away by this fascinating search for family and for answers.”—Janet Skeslien Charles, New York Times bestselling author of The Paris Library and Miss Morgan’s Book Brigade

One of The Washington Post’s “10 Noteworthy Books for March”

In Half Moon Bay, California, 2016, a young woman waits for her father's sailboat to arrive at port. They have agreed to meet on this day and time. Yet he never shows.

He has told her this event might come. And if it did, she was ready. Go to the library in Berkeley, find a certain book, follow the instructions. But what if the instructions lead to more questions than answers?

In 1933, a young man arrives in Vienna to begin a new post as a professor of mathematics at the university. There he finds himself part of the Engelhardt Circle, a group of intellectuals that have recently been targeted by a growing anti-academic mob. The circle includes the preeminent minds of their time and a cast of characters desperate to get invited into their midst, many of whom will stop at nothing to get there. As fascism rises, and polarization increases, moderate voices are drowned out.

There are whispers of a machine, a music box, which can transport someone through time. But no one can confirm if it's a rumor or true. And the only people who know firsthand are not talking.

Between the young woman, who lives off the grid and spends her free time editing Wikipedia entries and picking fights with people online, and the circle of intellectuals debating space and time in Vienna on the eve of World War II, lie years of history that might easily be erased—unless old secrets are unraveled. Kirsten Menger-Anderson's beautiful meditation on time, love, and obsession shows us how we never truly know what happened in the past, and often how the past eerily mirrors the future.

©2025 Kirsten Menger-Anderson (P)2025 Random House Audio

Critic reviews

“Menger-Anderson’s intellectual time-travel mystery intertwines the fates of three characters and explores the scholarly movements that were targeted when fascism was on the rise in Austria.”—The Washington Post

“An eloquent story of time travel and family secrets . . . Menger-Anderson does an excellent job of recreating the fraught academic and cultural life of Vienna before the 1938 Anschluss, and she effectively sustains the pretzel logic of time travel. It’s an appealing intellectual mystery.”—Publishers Weekly

“In her brilliant, unsettling novel, Kirsten Menger-Anderson reminds the reader that every nuance counts. Before, history was written by the victor; now, an army of volunteers with pseudonyms like ‘Manifold’ battle and edit each Wikipedia page. From Vienna to San Francisco, I was swept away by this fascinating search for family and for answers.”—Janet Skeslien Charles, New York Times bestselling author of The Paris Library and Miss Morgan’s Book Brigade

Not unknown, unseen

Math + mystery + time travel! A perfect blend. Very enjoyable and highly recommend. Great narration throughout audio book, too.