Solvej Balle

Utterly riveting, Solvej Balle’s On the Calculation of Volume (Book I) is the grand opening of her speculative fiction septology, winner of the 2022 Nordic Council Literature Prize (Scandinavia’s most important literary award) for being “a masterpiece of its time.”  Tara Selter, the heroine of On the Calculation of Volume, has involuntarily stepped off the train of in her world, November eighteenth repeats itself endlessly. We meet Tara on her 122nd November 18 she no longer experiences the changes of days, weeks, months, or seasons. She finds herself in a lonely new reality without being able to explain how is it that she wakes every morning into the same day, knowing to the exact second when the blackbird will burst into song and when the rain will begin? Will she ever be able to share her new life with her beloved and now chronically befuddled husband? And on top of her profound isolation and confusion, Tara takes in with pain how slight a difference she makes in the world. (As she puts “That’s how little the activities of one person matter on the eighteenth of November.”) Balle is hypnotic and masterful in her remixing of the endless recursive day, creating curious little folds of time and her flashbacks light up inside the text like old flash bulbs. The first volume’s gravitational pull—a force inverse to its constriction—has the effect of a strong tranquilizer, but a drug under which your powers of observation only grow sharper and more acute. Give in to the book's logic (its minute movements, its thrilling shifts, its slant wit, its slowing of time) and its spell is utterly intoxicating. Solvej Balle’s seven-volume novel wrings enthralling and magical new dimensions from time and its hapless, mortal subjects.  As one Danish reviewer beautifully put it, Balle’s fiction consists of writing that listens. “Reading her is like being caressed by language itself.”

Tara Selter, the heroine of On the Calculation of Volume, has involuntarily stepped off the train of time: in her world, November eighteenth repeats itself endlessly. We meet Tara on her 122nd November 18th: she no longer experiences the changes of days, weeks, months, or seasons. She finds herself in a lonely new reality without being able to explain why: how is it that she wakes every morning into the same day, knowing to the exact second when the blackbird will burst into song and when the rain will begin? Will she ever be able to share her new life with her beloved and now chronically befuddled husband? And on top of her profound isolation and confusion, Tara takes in with pain how slight a difference she makes in the world. (As she puts it: “That’s how little the activities of one person matter on the eighteenth of November.”) Balle is hypnotic and masterful in her remixing of the endless recursive day, creating curious little folds of time and foreshadowings: her flashbacks light up inside the text like old flash bulbs. The first volume’s gravitational pull―a force inverse to its constriction―has the effect of a strong tranquilizer, but a drug under which your powers of observation only grow sharper and more acute. Give in to the book's logic (its minute movements, its thrilling shifts, its slant wit, its slowing of time) and its spell is utterly intoxicating. Solvej Balle’s seven-volume novel wrings enthralling and magical new dimensions from time and its hapless, mortal subjects. As one Danish reviewer beautifully put it, Balle’s fiction consists of writing that listens. “Reading her is like being caressed by language itself.”

È il 18 novembre. Tara Selter è una libraia antiquaria e si trova a Parigi per lavoro. Quando si risveglia il mattino dopo nella sua camera d’albergo, si accorge che è ancora il 18 novembre. Disorientata, torna a casa dal marito Thomas per cercare aiuto. Lui le crede, ma non è prigioniero del tempo. Così Tara ogni mattina deve spiegargli daccapo l’enigma che sta vivendo, le strane leggi che regolano il suo mondo – alcuni oggetti restano con lei, altri svaniscono misteriosamente. Confusa e sola, inizia a tenere il diario del suo unico giorno infinito, nel tentativo di comprendere la fisica indecifrabile che ha trasformato il suo tempo in uno spazio di cui è l’unica abitante. Finché, dopo un anno, decide di tornare a Parigi, dove tutto è iniziato, nella speranza di trovare il varco nel flusso del tempo e riconquistarsi un futuro. Nel primo romanzo di questa saga in sette libri, Tara Selter vive il suo unico giorno come uno spazio da esplorare nei minimi dettagli, con i suoi misteri e le sue gioie inspiegabili, con la meraviglia per una pioggia sottile, un cielo stellato. Solvej Balle ci conduce in una piega del tempo, un luogo accogliente e spaventoso, denso e rarefatto come l’universo.

''Om udregning af rumfang I'' er første del af Solvej Balles roman i syv dele, der hører til i genren spekulativ fiktion. Tara Selter har været på en kort rejse og er blevet fanget i en enkelt dag, den 18. november. Hun vender hjem til byen Clairon-sous-Bois i det nordlige Frankrig, hvor hun bor sammen med sin mand Thomas, som hver morgen mener at være vågnet op til den attende november for første gang, overbevist om at dagen før var den syttende, og at næste dag vil være den nittende november. Hver dag må Tara fortælle Thomas, hvad der er sket, og de to forsøger at mødes på tværs af de forskellige tider, de lever i. Mens de forsøger at finde sig til rette deres regnfulde novemberdag, begynder de at begribe konsekvenserne af en tid, der er gået i stykker. Bogen er både en kærlighedshistorie og en fortælling om tingenes utilregnelighed.

I was sure that through careful listening you could solve any problem that might arise. If you really listened. The great questions in life. Everything. Tara Selter is searching for a way back into time. A year has passed, but Tara still wakes up to the same newspapers, and the same blank faces when she explains that she has seen this all before. Until one morning, she boards a train and finds herself in a new day. It is still the eighteenth of November, but the faces are different, the weather is colder. She realises that she has found a way out of her endless autumn. By moving across Europe rather than through time, she can collect the ingredients for the the thin film of ice on puddles, the fresh spring breeze, the blazing summer sun. As she travels, she begins to hope for a new future, one that will run in parallel to the eighteenth of November, one that she must build for herself.

Tara Selter, a protagonista da história, está escondida no quarto de hóspedes da própria casa e ouvindo uma pessoa andar de um cômodo a outro — o marido dela, Thomas, caminha sem saber da presença da esposa. Ao contrário de Tara, ele não está vivendo a falha no tempo que causou a repetição de um mesmo dia em sequê essa é a 121ª vez que ela vive o dia 18 de novembro. No dia original, Tara estava em Paris a trabalho. Quando a fenda temporal passa a fazer parte de sua vida, ela retorna a Clairon-sous-Bois, onde vive com o marido, e tenta desvendar o que está acontecendo. Contando a Thomas todos os dias sobre o que está vivendo — já que, para ele, é sempre o primeiro dia 18 —, e confiando que ele acreditará nela, Tara testa os limites e as regras dessa nova realidade para tentar compreendê-la e, então, encontrar uma maneira de escapar dela. Em Sobre o cálculo do volume 1, livro que inaugura a audaciosa septologia de Solvej Balle, acompanhamos Tara em sua confusão, sua raiva e, enfim, sua solidão. Com uma escrita hipnotizante, os livros de Solvej Balle prometem cativar os leitores desde as primeiras páginas.