{"title":"Dedalus Original Fiction In Paperback Ser","description":null,"products":[{"product_id":"secret-knowledge-book-andrew-crumey-9781909232457","title":"Secret Knowledge","description":"A lost musical masterpiece is at the heart of this gripping intellectual mystery by award-winning writer Andrew Crumey. In 1913 composer Pierre Klauer envisages marriage to his sweetheart and fame for his new work, The Secret Knowledge. Then tragedy strikes. A century later, concert pianist David Conroy hopes the rediscovered score might revive his own flagging career. Music, history, politics and philosophy become intertwined in a multi-layered story that spans a century. Revolutionary agitators, Holocaust refugees and sixties student protesters are counterpointed with artists and entrepreneurs in our own age of austerity. All play their part in revealing the shocking truth that Conroy must finally face the real meaning of The Secret Knowledge. it s a clever book, and funny, and thought-provoking; it mixes a whodunnit with the intellectual japes of Umberto Eco, and (not surprisingly for Crumey, who s a highly trained physicist) a bunch of quantum references. It s the sort of book that has you constantly flipping back through the chapters to check connections and coincidences; that makes you nod furiously once you figure something out. And, by the end, you want to start over again as fast as possible to see if you ve properly understood it Bookmunch","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"GB \/ VERY_GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":49519172092177,"sku":"GOR005193042","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"GB \/ LIKE_NEW \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":49598043652369,"sku":"GOR006915582","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/1909232459.jpg?v=1751446669"},{"product_id":"mr-mee-book-andrew-crumey-9781909232945","title":"Mr Mee","description":"'The playful preoccupation with alternative realities that dominated Scots author Crumey s previous fiction (including Pfitz and D Alembert s Principle) also informs this richly amusing novel about the search for an 18th-century encyclopedia that supposedly disproves the existence of the universe. Crumey s wonderfully obsessive characters include the crotchety title figure (an elderly book collector), the lissome life-scientist who acquaints him with the world outside books, a perceptive college teacher of French literature, and a pair of bachelor copyists (and autodidacts who are dead ringers for Flaubert s ineffably pompous Bouvard and Pecuchet). Rattling back and forth between two centuries, this agreeably serpentine tale speaks volumes about the folly of scholarly preoccupation and the unreliability of received wisdom, while never neglecting to entertain the bedazzled reader. Borges and Calvino would have approved.' Starred Review in Kirkus 'Crumey tells  his] tale with elegance and humor, and in rich detail. His immense talent reveals itself most potently in his ability to find remarkable connections in otherwise disparate intellectual concepts conceived over the course of several centuries, and then to turn those connections into a coherent and lively story. . . The many surprises and twists  in this book] provide a rare and spectacular reading experience . . . Mr. Mee is a challenging book, but it's one to savour.' Andrew C. Ervin in The Washington Post Book World","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"GB \/ VERY_GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":49623210426641,"sku":"GOR008397442","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/1909232947.jpg?v=1751061199"},{"product_id":"defying-reality-book-karina-mellinger-9781903517611","title":"Defying Reality","description":"A novel about one of the preoccupations of our age, fame and celebrity culture. Serena Dawlish is the most famous soap star of them all. When she appears on the small screen in 'Coombe Ridge Crescent' the nation comes to a standstill. But her agent Gareth has told her that although she is famous she isn't quite famous enough and so she begins her pursuit of total and permanent fame.Serena meets and falls in love with the strange but well-hung Marlon who tells her - and can prove scientifically - that she is an alien. She wants to leave her husband and marry him but Gareth vetoes their affair. Marlon isn't a politician, a pop star or a footballer so he will do nothing for her career and anyway his mother, Shelley, is too fat to look good in the wedding photos. Meanwhile Serena's husband, the renowned Shakespearian actor James Marlborough, is also tormented by his own emotional dilemma. He wants to leave Serena - he can no longer stand the smell of her fake tan - and be with his mistress, Geraldine, who calls him Rover when they make love. But most of his audience now only come to see him because he's married to the celebrated Serena Dawlish - why else would they want to see Shakespeare? If he leaves her he destroys his career.Geraldine is presenting a new prime-time TV show called 'I Gave Birth To A Celebrity' with Serena as the surprise celebrity on the first show. However, as Geraldine has decided that Serena's real mother is too boring to play the part of mother she has secretly replaced her with Shelley. Will Shelley's revelations on the show seal Serena's quest for fame or will they ruin her forever?","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"GB \/ GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":53340770074897,"sku":"GOR014861013","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"GB \/ VERY_GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":53342154916113,"sku":"GOR014861927","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/9781903517611.jpg?v=1774459101"}],"url":"https:\/\/www.worldofbooks.com\/collections\/dedalus-original-fiction-in-paperback-ser-book-series.oembed","provider":"World of Books ","version":"1.0","type":"link"}