Due to a sudden, unexpected passing in the family a few years ago and another more recently and my subsequent (mental) health issues stemming from that, I was unable to download this book in time to review it before it was archived as I did not visit this site for several years after the bereavements. This meant I didn't read or venture onto netgalley for years as not only did it remind me of that person as they shared my passion for reading, but I also struggled to maintain interest in anything due to overwhelming depression. I was therefore unable to download this title in time and so I couldn't give a review as it wasn't successfully acquired before it was archived. The second issue that has happened with some of my other books is that I had them downloaded to one particular device and said device is now defunct, so I have no access to those books anymore, sadly.

This means I can't leave an accurate reflection of my feelings towards the book as I am unable to read it now and so I am leaving a message of explanation instead. I am now back to reading and reviewing full time as once considerable time had passed I have found that books have been helping me significantly in terms of my mindset and mental health - this was after having no interest in anything for quite a number of years after the passings. Anything requested and approved will be read and a review written and posted to Amazon (where I am a Hall of Famer & Top Reviewer), Goodreads (where I have several thousand friends and the same amount who follow my reviews) and Waterstones (or Barnes & Noble if the publisher is American based). Thank you for the opportunity and apologies for the inconvenience.

A fantastic, fascinating combination of fiction and fact that has, unsurprisingly, been shortlisted for the Man Booker. I saw a review that said this book almost creates its own genre, and I have to agree that it is unlike anything else I've had the fortune to read before. Exploring science, physics and the limits our understanding, the essays and stories within are a delight to read and which play on the mind long after finishing it. It did take me a while to read, but it was well worth it.

Absolutely outstanding book exploring the lives and torments of famous physicists, and what it means to travel to the edges of meaning.

I received this book as an e-ARC from the publisher but quickly discovered I needed the book to be present in my hand as I read, I loved it so. I needed to buy it. I needed to turn the pages, and to feel what I was reading as a physical thing with its own smell and its own texture, Let it be known that my copy has a very smooth cover, like soft skin, and its pages smell like summer grass in a dry land. I've had this feeling before of wanting a book in my hand this way but never so urgently. It felt like needing a loved one to return home. Reading the novel, reading the words, made my heart beat faster. Reading this novel was a deeply sensual pleasure to me, however intellectual its story and its language. As I read I kept thinking: what a perfectly interesting thought that I have never thought before--and the book just kept on surprising me that way, one new bold idea after another.

There are a lot of authors experimenting just now with ways to combine the real, and the fictional, and the historical, and the personal all together into a narrative. What I've vividly discovered for myself, now that I've read <i>When We Cease to Understand the World,</i> is how much I adore those authors who plumb the depths of history, and then weave a unique mythology of subjective meanings from the facts. Sebald, Labatut, Stepanova all do this. It's quite a different kind of thing from the kind of fiction called "auto-fiction' just now, which dives deep into just one person's history, the author's personal narrative, and adds fictional or subjective elements to that very narrow personal experience. Unlike the auto-fictioners, who put themselves at the center of their stories, Labatut and his counterparts efface themselves almost entirely from their stories. They're interested in a bigger picture. Each detail they choose adds exquisitely to the whole and the result is a Bayeux Tapestry of a novel. I love this way of writing, this way of storytelling. It's a gift to read this book.

'This book is about what happens when we reach the edges of science; when we come face to face with what we cannot understand. It is about what occurs to the human mind when it pushes past the outer limits of thought, and what lies beyond those limits.'

A fascinating book which is a clever blend of fact and fiction. There's a seamless texture to the text that grips the reader and encourages them to use their mind and imagination throughout.

Now shortlisted for the Man International Booker Prize 2021.

It is easy to forget that any information that we took for granted as scientific facts right now are merely the results of recent advances that have been made in scientific inquiry in the previous century. The twentieth century might be the deadliest era of human history with conflicts spanning from the Great War – the war that supposedly ended all wars – in 1914 until the conflicts in the Balkans and former Soviet territories following the fall of communism. The First World War was especially the most disastrous with the way mechanization changed the previously observed rules related to war. Benjamín Labatut starts his narrative by chronicling the work of Fritz Haber who invented the deadly gas used by the German Army during the First World War, even though many would remember him more later on for his notable achievement in the invention of fertilizer. Ironically, Zyklon, the gas invented by Haber would later be used by the Nazis to murder Haber’s fellow Jews. How are we supposed to understand the world when we are confronted with the dark sides of science?

A work of fiction inspired by a series of historical events is how this work is simply about, but it’s not as simple as it sounds. In some ways, it echoes the way Olga Tokarczuk approaches the biographies of several characters in Flights that brings it close to the imagination as clear as a day. In Schwarzschild Singularity, for example, Benjamín Labatut goes into details describing the life of Karl Schwarzschild, a former confidante of Albert Einstein who helped to support Einstein’s theory of general relativity. Schwarzschild, an astrophysicist who directed the Potsdam Observatory, tried to apply Einstein’s theory of general relativity into objects in outer space. Beyond biographical description, Benjamín Labatut describes Schwarzschild’s discovery with details that are stunning for lay readers in metaphorical ways that blend science and philosophy.

Throughout his life, Einstein tried so hard to develop a Theory of Everything that could explain the paradoxical nature of quantum mechanics. He began to loathe the field that he previously initiated, and was spiteful at his inability to discover the universal law of nature that he gave his infamous remark: “God does not play the dice with the world.” So many scientists, from de Broglie and Schrödinger with their supports of the study of wave mechanics, as well as Heisenberg with his uncertainty principle tried to explain the nature of atoms. Heisenberg especially developed his realisation during the time of his retreat in Helgoland, told in great details in Carlo Rovelli’s Helgoland, where he developed a system of quantum mechanics based on matrices of algebra. Schrödinger also found his realisation during his delirious state as he was cared for by Miss Herwig when he was on the verge of giving up physics altogether after a series of failure in building up his career. Blending historical facts and fictionalised recounting, this book gives goosebumps about quantum mechanics discoveries.

I’m not sure if I get the main message, but it rather gives me an impression of the dark sides of science and the impossibility of knowledge when faced with higher unknown forces. It reminds me somehow of the 1980’s film directed by Polish director Krzystof Zanussi, The Constant Factor, in which the main character attempts to calculate mathematical equations while seeking ways to explain the logic behind the constant factor. In many cases, the constant factor remains the same and it is unexplainable how a set of number could balance some calculation. What the professor says in that film: “What you can calculate, ceases to be a mystery.” In that sense, Benjamín Labatut also triggers an intriguing discussion about the moral values of science. Do we need to understand everything? And if we understand everything, will we put it to some good use?

For lay readers, get prepared to get messed up in the head. Thankfully, there are not many mathematical equations in this book. Einstein's biography, Einstein: His Life and Universe by Walter Isaacson, actually contains more equations than those that exist in this book. However, I would think that recalling high school lessons in physics would help to understand some concepts explained by Labatut. Overall I like the ideas, even though I remain sceptical about whether this book will be understood correctly by lay readers. In some ways, it also helps me to think more than our current world is not entirely singular, that there are always some double meanings, that each branch of knowledge does not stand independently from each other.

“The atoms that tore Hiroshima and Nagasaki apart were split not by the greasy fingers of a general, but by a group of physicists armed with a fistful of equations."

When We Cease to Understand the World has recently been shortlisted for the International Booker Prize, and it is clear to see why. This book, which seamlessly blends fiction and non-fiction, details some of the world’s greatest scientific discoveries. It highlights the sheer power of science, but also the incredibly roundabout ways in which scientists have made their discoveries, and all the people and events that helped and hindered them along the way. As someone who is not even remotely science minded, I thought that I would struggle with this book. But it really wasn’t the case. It effortlessly blends fiction and non-fiction, and with each chapter (or short story), the fictional elements slowly overtake the non-fictional until we finish with a final summarising fictional short story (which was my favourite of them all).

Each short story takes a different scientist, or mathematician, as its source and builds a world around them. We read about the situations which lead to their discoveries, and in some cases, the tragedy which struck as a result of such discoveries. I enjoyed the first (Prussian Blue) and third (The Heart of the Heart) the most, as I personally found them the most interesting. If I am being honest, the fourth (from which the translated book takes its title) dragged a little for me and ended up ultimately confusing me but I equally do understand why it is the core story of the book; it really does epitomise the extent to which scientists don’t understand the world. Honestly, a lot of the core scientific content went over my head (my brain just does not compute science), but the reading experience was still effortless, educational, and very unique. I can confidently say that I have come away with a newfound respect, but also deep fear, of science and its potential. The writing flows, and was expertly translated by West, and I so often found myself dumbstruck by the fact that I was enjoying reading about atoms, space and scientific theory. An incredibly original book, which pleasantly surprised me.

Thank you to Netgalley and Pushkin Press for this copy in exchange for an honest review. A slightly more condensed review will be up on my Instagram shortly.

“For Heisenberg, it was no longer possible to speak of any subatomic particle with absolute certainty. Where before there had been a cause for every effect, now there was a spectrum of probabilities. In the deepest substrate of all things, physics had not found the solid unassailable reality Schrödinger and Einstein has dreamt of, ruled over by a rational God pulling the threads of the world, but a domain of wonders and rarities, borne of the whims of a many-armed goddess toying with chance..

His original intuition had been correct: it was impossible to ‘see’ a quantum entity for the simple reason that it did not have a single identity.”

An analogous uncertainty principle applies to Benjamin Labatut’s When We Cease to Understand the World - is it a novel? Is it a short story collection? An essay collection? What in the world is a non-fiction novel? Where does fact end and fiction begin? Once you can wrap your head around the fact that the book does not have a single identity, you’re in for a treat.

The title chapter is about this war of science and sassiness - with Bohr and his protégé Heisenberg in one camp and Schrödinger and Einstein on the other, trying to disprove each other’s theories of quantum mechanics. There are illnesses, fever dreams of abstention and masturbation, matrices and equations and the ultimate repartee between Einstein (God does not play dice with the Universe!) and Bohr (it is not our place to tell him how to run the world.)

Like the dark side of the moon, which remained hidden from humanity (as the moon turns on its axis at the same speed as it rotates around the planet) until 1959, when it was photographed by a space probe for the first time, Labatut probes into the dark side of science - of the the creation of pigments such as Prussian blue of Van Gogh’s Starry Nights and emerald green of Napoleon’s prison walls - which in turn brought into the world the instant poison, Cyanide, and the slow poison, Arsenic. Of Fritz Haber, who created both Chlorine gas that killed thousands in the First World War, and the nitrogen based fertiliser that saved hundreds and millions from famine and fuelled our current overpopulation. Of the nightmares that Schwarzchild’s Singularity caused him and self isolation of Grothendieck to protect mankind from his mathematical discovery.

Fascinating stuff. If only the author would tell me whether putting on pearl earplugs can really help with migraine or whether he made that up because Schrödinger needed a love story.

This book is exceptional!

After reading two chapters in the e-book that Pushkin Press and NetGalley so kindly gifted me, I immediately ordered the hardcover version of it. I knew that this was a book I wanted in my collection.

Each chapter of the book is dedicated to different scientists and their discoveries.
The first chapter is almost entirely non-fiction, but as the book progresses Labatut weaves in more and more of his beautiful and hypnotic fiction and storytelling.

Subjects such as the Schrödinger’s cat experiment and the discovery of modern fertilizers is explored, and told with such life and beauty. Labatut manages to take subjects that might have been rather dry, and turn it into magic!

The stories being based on real scientists, their lives and their discoveries makes for a compelling read.

I can tell you already that a lot of people will be getting this book for Christmas this year, it’s that good!

This book is shortlisted for international Booker prize this year, and won’t be surprised if it makes it to the very top.

Two Pushkin Press titles were longlisted for the 2021 International Booker Prize and both have now made the shortlist. One is David Diop’s At Night All Blood is Black, in a translation by Anna Moschvakis, which I review here. The other is When We Cease to Understand the World by Chilean author Benjamín Labatut, originally published in Spanish as Un Verdor Terrible and now available in an English translation by Adrian Nathan West.

The protagonists of Labatut’s novel are a clutch of mathematical geniuses of the 20th Century, figures whose work led to a total rethinking of the way we look at the world. Unsurprisingly Einstein features here, but the ground-breaking nature of his Theory of Relativity almost pales when set alongside the revolutionary ideas of luminaries such as Alexander Grothendiek, Shinichi Moshizuki, Werner Heisenberg and Erwin Schrödinger (he of the un/dead cat fame). These were great minds who revealed to us a universe whose workings defy the “accepted” rules of physics, and challenge reality as we know it.

The concepts behind When We Cease to Understand the World are hardly new: the strangeness of genius; the murky dividing line between brilliance and insanity; the way in which going beyond the confines of accepted views of the world can untether us from our humanity; the dangers of cutting-edge mathematics, physics and technology when used for destructive purposes. What’s novel about this novel (excuse the poor pun) is its narrative approach. It is, in fact, made up of five segments: four of which are essay-like, and the fifth – The Night Gardener –a short “auto-fiction” piece which at first glance seems incongruous with the rest of the book, but which tidily wraps up some of the philosophical themes of the novel.

The four essay pieces culminate in the longest segment which also gives the novel its title, and which speaks of the rivalry between Heisenberg and Schrödinger. In an author’s note at the end of the book, we are told that although based on fact, the way the narrative is treated becomes increasingly fictional as the novel progresses. Thus, Prussian Blue, the opening chapter, speaks of Fritz Haber, whose discoveries saved the world from famine (through the production of fertilizer) but also led to him being dubbed “the father of chemical warfare”. According to Labatut, there is but one fictional paragraph in this part. It is hardly surprising that the subsequent chapters rely more on the author’s imagination. Indeed, whereas the opening chapter has a factual, quasi-academic feel to it (while remaining very readable), the subsequent segments show us the workings of the minds of the protagonists in a way which certainly could not have been documented and which implicitly suggest authorial invention. This approach has been compared to Sebald’s by some readers, but perhaps a closer analogy would be works of historical fiction featuring real characters or, in the film sector, a biopic “based on a true story” which, at the end, sends you down an internet rabbit hole to try to distinguish fact from fiction. This ambiguity at the heart of the novel becomes itself a metaphor for the mathematical theories discussed therein which seem so outrageous as to lead us to question reality.

Labatut’s approach allows him to tease out interesting and unexpected connections between the different strands of his story. Despite the essay-like style, this remains a gripping read, no doubt also thanks to Adrian Nathan West’s translation, which feels so natural that you forget that you are not reading the novel in its original language. What is particularly impressive is the way in which the complexity of abstruse areas of knowledge is conveyed to a general (and unscientific reader) such as myself, generally through the use of arresting imagery. Tellingly, Labatut has physicist Niels Bohr tell Heisenberg that “when discussing atoms, language could serve as nothing more than a kind of poetry”. I assure you that there is much poetry in When We Cease to Understand the World, a novel quite unlike any other novel I’ve read.

Amazing, by far the most original and thought-provoking novel I’ve read in years.

It combines non-fiction and fiction and is about early twentieth century scientists, mathematicians, chemists, physicists and how their discoveries and attempts to define, categorise and understand the world have resulted in a paradox where most people today are increasingly unable to comprehend the world with the application of some of these discoveries, for example in pure mathematics or quantum mechanics.

Labatut explores the duality of scientific discovery, its sinister and positive application in the invention of Prussian blue, the first synthetic colour, beautiful in art but it also led to the creation of cyanide. Franz Haber, German chemist featured in the first story was responsible for both the development of fertilizers and chlorine gas. On the one hand, he made it easier to feed billions of people but on the other, he observed (from a safe distance) thousands of French soldiers dying from gas poisoning in WW1 trenches. This duality, the darkness and the light runs throughout the novel with scientists driven to the brink of madness as they seek to define, to find universal laws governing the universe. The epiphany moment of discovery, of coming up with the equation or a concrete formula preceded by eerie visions, dreams and mysticism.

Structurally, the novel is divided into four stories and a novella, each containing non-fictional elements from scientists’ lives and highly imaginative fiction. As the novel progresses, Labatut imagines more and more scenes and experiences. This is highly effective and very well done. Considering the novel deals with some difficult concepts and theories, it surprised me how easy and compelling it was to read and the translation by Adrian Nathan West is excellent too. Am so impressed with When We Cease to Understand the World and very happy it made the International Booker longlist.

My thanks to Pushkin Press and Netgalley for the opportunity to read When We Cease to Understand the World.

DNF
I’m sure this is a wonderful book if you’re interested in mathematics and science, but to be honest I’m not and I feel this just wasn’t for me. It is well written of course but after reading more than half of this short book, I was still struggling and still didn’t enjoy it and gave up on it. So many people are liking it though, so don’t let my opinion hold you back from at least giving it a go.
Thank you Puskin Press and Netgalley for the ARC..

"This book is about what happens when we reach the edges of science; when we come face to face with what we cannot understand. It is about what occurs to the human mind when it pushes past the outer limits of thought, and what lies beyond those limits."

This book was longlisted for the 2021 International Booker Prize, one of two books by Pushkin Press – who publish “the world’s best stories, to be read and read again.”

I was already well aware of this book and very keen to read it - as one of my closest Goodreads friends Neil had picked it as one of the best books of 2020 (for a Mookse and Gripes discussion/ranking – where it ended up ranked first for 2020) and my twin brother Paul had suggested it as the clear deserving winner of the 2021 Booker (well before the longlist).

I was also aware that it is a book which draws heavily in its initial chapter on WG Sebald’s “Rings of Saturn” which I re-read recently and for much of the rest of its content on quantum physics and mathematics (which I studied and loved at University - quantum physics in fact being the only part of applied mathematics/mathematical physics that I really loved as its more theoretical and probabilistic nature much more matched my love of pure mathematics and statistics).

And this is not a book that disappoints.

As both Paul and Neil have pointed out the author (a Netherlands born, Spanish language writer now living in Chile) himself gives the best introduction to the book in a detailed English language interview with his German publisher – and I would recommend reading it in full (before and after reading the actual novel).

https://www.suhrkamp.de/images/sonderseite/Labatut-Interview-neu.pdf

The book starts with a almost entirely non-fictional chapter “Prussian Blue”, which has heavy overlap with Sebald (for example starting with silkworms) and takes in (largely via the German scientist, Noble Prize winner but also alleged war criminal) Fritz Haber such ideas as German end WW2 mass suicides, artifical pigmentation, WW1 gas attacks (including Hitler as a victim), the amphetamine dependency of the Nazi war machine, Zyklon-B, nitrogen-based fertilisers both natural/historic and artificial (via the synthesis of ammonia), poisons and so on. The author has the section contains only one fictional paragraph which I think could be the last one – where Haber’s true lack of remorse for his War actions (which in WW1 even lead to the suicide of his wife) was said to instead have regretted his role in allowing the risk of fertiliser enhanced nature to take over the world.

The second chapter concentrates on Karl Schwarzschild and his remarkable work on solving Einstein’s General Relativity Equations while posted on the Russian front (my pun – he could have been said to have solved the Field Equations while in the field), and despite suffering from a completely debilitating genetic auto-immune disease which may have been triggered by a gas attack (linking of course to the first chapter). Symbolically though the many different ideas in the chapter are inexorably drawn to one central idea Schwarzschild first originated – the Black Hole. A physical singularity which is a necessary consequence of the mathematical equations of space-time but which is difficult if not impossible for us to really conceive of in any conventional terms; and something which at first – and particularly to Einstein - seemed a paradox, an anomaly, a consequence of either over-simplification or of applying a formula beyond the limits and bounds where it can be correctly parameterised – but which in science has gradually accepted as being real and fundamental to our understanding of physics. The even greater power in this chapter though is the corollary drawn (I am not clear if really by Schwarzschild or by Schwarzschild interpreted by Labatut that human psyche (if sufficiently warped and concentrated on a single purpose) could perhaps produce an equally terrible singularity “a black sun dawning over the horizon, capable of engulfing the entire world”, something even more terrible than WW1 – which is of course a prophecy of the rise of Nazi-ism.

The third chapter in my view was the weakest – about the Japanese mathematician Mochizuki and his predecessor the master of abstraction Alexander Grothendieck. Thematically the chapter fits well – with the idea of mathematical concepts which while seemingly true seem impossible for most people to understand, and the idea that at the centre (for the few who do comprehend them) is something terrible and dangerous; but I just did not feel it came to life as well as the other chapters or had particularly strong mathematical descriptions (a quick Wiki look up helped me grasp A+B = C much better than the chapter). Here I think a largely factual basis has a number of fictional elements (particularly I think around Grothendieck’s last days).

The fourth section is the longest – by now the gradual blending of fiction and fact has come to something of a balance.

The factual scaffolding of this section is the two rival schools of interpretation of Quantum mechanics – Erwin Schrödinger and his Uncertainty Principle, and Werner Heisenberg and his Copenhagen interpretation as developed with his mentor Niels Bohr - rival schools which were not just about different mathematical formulations but about different mathematical/physical worldviews as explained in a preface “while Schrödinger had needed only a single equation to describe virtually the whole of modern chemistry and physics, Heisenberg’s ideas and formulae were exceptionally abstract, philosophically revolutionary, and so dreadfully complex” – further Heisenberg we are told (in a return to one of the author’s key themes) had “glimpsed a dark nucleus at the heart of things”.

Much of the rest of this section is then a fictional imagining of (quoting the author’s interview) “the conditions under which each one of them had their particular epiphany”. Schrödinger’s sensuous time on a ski resort, his “lover’s …..pearls inside his ears to concentrate”, Heisenberg’s solitary time with horrendous hayfever on Heglioland – scene of course post-war of one of the largest ever man-made explosions, a non-nuclear and peace time explosion by the victorious British of surplus armaments. Now of course (partly my link partly the author’s) had Heisenberg not failed in his development of the German WW2 Atomic Weapons programme (in contrast to Haber’s success in the German WW1 Chemical Weapons programme) a very different explosion (nuclear, war-time, by the Germans) may have taken place instead and the history of the World been very different.

These fictional sections – Heisenberg’s in particular, mix dreams and visions with quantum physics – returning to another recurring theme of the book, that many great mathematical and mathematical physics discoveries (particularly those relating to the mysterious world of higher mathematics and quantum mechanics) begin with a literally imaginative and visionary leap beyond conventional thinking with then the harder work being to put the mathematical framework behind it (this very idea of a factual scaffolding holding up but also inspired by an imaginative piece also mirroring the very structure of this fourth section).

And one of the key visions that Heisenberg has ends in a nightmarishy way – when he later meets with Bohr he tells him everything that lead up to his developments of his quantum theory other than this part.

"but for a strange reason he could explain neither to himself nor to Bohr, for it was one he would not understand until decades later, he was incapable of confessing his vision of the dead baby at his feet, or the thousands of figures who had surrounded him in the forest, as if wishing to warn him of something, before they were carbonized in an instant by that flash of blind light."

And we of course see know that this vision is linked to and maybe even acted as a warning to Heisenberg not to contemplate the German Atomic weapons programme. I was of course reminder of Michael Frayn’s brilliant play “Copenhagen” which tells and retells the story of Heisenberg and Bohr’s meeting in 1941 and what it meant for both the US and German programmes.

The last chapter rounds the book off neatly – a first party and entirely fictional account, where the narrator, in Chile, meets a night-time gardener, an ex-mathematican and the two discuss many of the ideas in earlier chapters and the book’s overall themes.

The book is translated (extremely naturally I have to say) by Adrian Nathan West

The only criticism I could aim here is the usual bugbear of title – the Spanish language title being effectively I think translatable as “A Terrible Nature” (although literally translated in this book as “ a terrible verdure”) which is taken from the very last words of the first and important chapter, in my view encompasses the key ideas the middle sections explore and then identifies directly with the last and very different chapter of the book; whereas the English title is taken straight from the longest section of the book and perhaps gives that undue primacy in an English reader’s mind.

But that is a small criticism of a brilliant book.

i'll be honest and admit this took me ages to read even though the book itself is so short but i've finally completed it. In general Its an excellent insight ( albeit mostly fictional) into the thought processes of various scientists who have contributed to the development of maths and physics in the last 100 years or so. That helped me to get at least a minimal feel for how Quantum Theory works , which is more than actual books opn the subject have done! My favourite portion was the first chapter which taught me lots regarding Cyanide, and Prussian Blue etc.
Labatut is an excellent writer, and it ill be interesting to see what he will write next.

I had an incredibly difficult time writing this review, as I'm still struggling to work out how to describe this marvel of a book.
Labatut manages to summarise it far better than I ever could: "This book is about what happens when we reach the edges of science; when we come face to face with what we cannot understand. It is about what occurs to the human mind when it pushes past the outer limits of thought, and what lies beyond those limits."
This was probably one of the most interesting things that I have read in a long while. It is a blend of fiction and non-fiction that's executed so well, it is hard to tell the two apart. As always with short story collections, certain ones grabbed me more than others, but they all provided an enjoyable read. My favorite had to be "The Night Gardener", the fifth and final story, as I felt that it just wrapped the book up perfectly. I have to applaud the translator for an absolutely stunning job. Had I not known that Labatut was Chilean before going into this, I would've happily said that this was originally written in English. A flawless translation!

This is definitely a book to go into without knowing a huge amount. If you're a lover of science and are on the hunt for something that is beautifully unique and will make you think, then please consider this! It's an absolute gem of a read.

Many thanks to the author, publisher, and Netgalley for sending me a copy of this book in return for an honest review.

I received a copy of the book from Netgalley to review. Thank you for the opportunity.
A strange story with a lack if clear flow of writing. There was little to enjoy reading as the mainstay was dark material. I didn't enjoy this book.

Labatut's "When we cease to understand the world" is both absolutely intriguing, interesting and informative, it blurs the lines between the real and imagined, fact and fiction. I am definitely looking forward to reading more books by this author.

Ah, what a splendid, fascinating little book! I've already been recommending it quite often - a wonderful mix of fiction and non fiction, and an absolutely original spin on science, fiction and history! I wish I owned a physical copy, but until then it has a special place in my front of store!

When We Cease to Understand the World features an exploration of major scientific advances in the 20th century alongside the idea that genius is often beset by madness. It is important to note, however, that there are increasing fictionalised elements as the book goes on and it becomes hard to determine what is truth and what is fiction. I was unsure how to rate this book because of this. On the one hand, I enjoyed the scientific content whereas on the other hand I would've appreciated more a genuine account of genius vs madness, to see what the real correlation is (if, indeed, there is one).

In order to separate facts from fiction, the onus is placed on the reader to go and do further research to determine what is true and I have two issues with this:
1) I don't read a book in order to be left with the prospect of extensive research to unravel it, and;
2) There is a risk others will not read the Author's Note (noticeably at the end of the book) to see that parts have been fictionalised and continue believing everything within it's pages as truth and fact. In an age of 'Post-Truth' this is a bit of a risk to take and I felt like the scientific discoveries detailed are diminished because of this.

Otherwise, the book is well written and interesting. It's not too heavy to read and seems to have been translated well.

Labatut, like Sebald (and The Rings of Saturn connects in multiple ways with this book) has written a peripatetic text that comprises a series of what look like essays but include an increasing amount of fictional elements: what holds them together are an interest in scientific knowledge and the dangers and responsibilities that understanding should impose on us.

The most obvious connection with Sebald is the subtext of German Fascism: Nazi silkworms (yep, Rings of Saturn), the use of amphetamines by Hitler's troops, various characters who end up in the camps, the development of Zyklon B, all make an appearance. There's also the spectre of Hiroshima that haunts the development of theories of quantum mechanics. Ideas of the monstrous and monstrosity return, as well as the image of a dark heart, though whether that's in the world or in humankind is left floating.

It's worth saying that I am probably one of the least scientifically-minded readers and yet I loved this. The wonder of quantum mechanics fascinates me though I can't begin to get my head around all those equations and theories - but that doesn't matter here and it's precisely the paradox uncovered by Schrodinger, the idea of a universe of potentialities and possibilities that evade the common sense of physical science that excites my imagination. It makes me think of a closed book, a text which contains a whole spectrum of meanings and interpretations contained within it which will be released by each individual reader as the book 'travels' through its readerly history and reception.

The writing and translation here are outstanding, this never reads like a translated text and there's a pliable texture to the prose that eases the transitions from topic to topic: what could have been jarring jumps in the hand of another author, here flow seamlessly and fascinatingly - the mode of writing thus seems to be making connections that parallel the programmatic stance of the text itself.

A clever but, importantly, humane book.