Sometimes sacrificing yourself to understand the life of another can have a daunting but ultimately reciprocating effect. In the novel, which won Prix Médicis and is shortlisted for the European Book Award, when Eleazard Von Wogau begins editing the unpublished biography of the 17th-century Jesuit scholar Athanasius Kircher, his life starts turning upside down. His family takes vastly different paths when his wife leads a dangerous archeological expedition and his daughter drops out of school with her professor and her lesbian lover to explore drugs and to find herself sexually. Wogau tries hard to maintain a sane state of mind through it all in this mesmerizing saga that never ceases to suprise. Already translated into 14 languages, this is a novel that will stay with you longer than others. (OtherPress.com, $32.50)
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