On the Calculation of Volume
 2025 Book cover | |
| Author | Solvej Balle |
|---|---|
| Audio read by | Elizabeth Liang |
| Translator | Barbara J. Haveland' |
| Subject | Time loop, Climate change, Marriage, Space and Time |
| Genre | Science fiction, Literary fiction |
| Publication place | United Kingdom, United States |
| ISBN | 9780811237253 |
| OCLC | 1468698459 |
| Website |
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| Originally published in Denmark by Pelagraf c. 2020, translated from Danish | |
On the Calculation of Volume (Danish title: Om udregning af rumfang) is a seven-novel-series written by Solvej Balle. Five volumes have been published in the original Danish.[1] Two volumes have been published in Barbara J. Haveland's English translation. Further volumes are in the process of being translated, with the third volume scheduled for publication on 18 November 2025.[2][3][4][5] The first translated volume was published by New Directions in November 2024[6] and by Faber & Faber on March 4, 2025.[7] The work is also being translated into more than twenty other languages.[7] The English translation of the first volume has been shortlisted for the 2025 International Booker Prize.[7][8][9] The first three volumes won the 2022 Nordic Council Literature Prize in Helsinki, Finland.[10]
Plot
[edit]The main engine that drives the story, as Boris Kachka writing for The Atlantic magazine says, "is best explained by Andy Samberg in the movie Palm Springs: 'It’s one of those infinite time-loop situations you might have heard about.'”[5]
In Solvej Balle's interpretation of the time loop trope, Tara Selter, a dealer in rare and antique books, keeps repeating a single day, November 18th. Balle's unique twist is that Tara's starting location for each day is not fixed. Rather, she begins each new day wherever she ended up the previous day.[2][5] This gives her far more freedom than other time loop protagonists, including those of Palm Springs or Bill Murray's character in Groundhog Day.[2][5]
In volume I, Tara describes the trip to Paris on which she first began looping, and details the days she has spent since, after returning to her home in rural France, where she lives with her husband, Thomas. Only Tara retains a memory of the previous November 18ths, and she has to start every day by convincing her husband of what is happening to her. Meanwhile, her body and some material objects continue to move through time. An injury she received in Paris slowly heals, and while groceries vanish overnight, her handwritten notes do not.[1][11]
In volume II, Tara uses her freedom to travel throughout Europe, visiting colder and warmer climates in an attempt to experience the seasons while stuck in her repeating cycle. At the end of this volume, she meets another person who is also experiencing a time loop.[11]
In volume II, Tara becomes increasingly concerned about the consumption of resources, with the story becoming "a parable about humanity’s abusive relationship with the natural world".[1] The Atlantic says that "Solvej Balle’s series of novels brings up questions about physics, sustainability, and, yes, the meaning of life."[5]
Critical reception
[edit]This book has received positive reviews:
The New York Times reviewer, Hilary Leichter, says "Here, the time-loop narrative takes on new and stunning proportions. Whereas the reader expects the loop to be straightened by sheer will or gamed through kindness, Balle dismisses such resolutions for something much more compelling. 'I no longer believe that I will suddenly wake up to a time that has returned to normal,' ... Tara Selter, thinks."[3]
Jake Casella Brookins, writing for Locus magazine says, "[Solvej] Balle's combination of narrator and setup is quietly genius. On the Calculation of Volume is not about comic repetition in the style of Groundhog Day, more in tune with the uncertainty and uncanniness of something like Russian Doll…Balle has nailed – and Haveland has ably translated – a remarkably believable, organic voice, a kind of quotidian existential mode that is equally suited to evocative descriptions of the world and to perceptive ruminations on the nature of time, relationships, and the self."[6]
A reviewer for The Atlantic, Rhian Sasseen says, "On the Calculation of Volume’s premise could, in other hands, be reduced to a gimmick. But in Haveland’s rendering, Balle’s stripped-down prose has an understated clarity that lends philosophical resonance to this fantastical setup."[2]
Morten Hoi Jensen, writing for the The Washington Post says, "Written in intermittent diary-like entries of varying length, “On the Calculation of Volume” is at once scrupulously realistic and intriguingly speculative. Balle succeeds in conveying the texture of Tara’s changing feelings, her shifting moods. There are moments of crisis and accident interspersed with bursts of enthusiasm and even, at times, hope."[4]
References
[edit]- ^ a b c Oltermann, Philip (29 March 2025). "'How can one day be so voluminous?': the Danish author who has written her own version of Groundhog Day". The Guardian. Retrieved 31 March 2025.
- ^ a b c d Sasseen, Rhian (December 12, 2024). "A Novel That Disrupts a Fundamental Law of the Universe". The Atlantic. Retrieved April 11, 2025.
- ^ a b Leichter, Hilary (January 25, 2025). "A 'Groundhog Day' Time Loop So Long It Spans 7 Enthralling Books". The New York Times. Retrieved April 11, 2025.
- ^ a b Jensen, Morten Hoi (December 6, 2024). "If Samuel Beckett wrote 'Groundhog Day,' you might get this Danish novel". The Washington Post. Retrieved April 11, 2025.
- ^ a b c d e Kachka, Boris (November 13, 2024). "'It's One of Those Infinite Time-Loop Situations You Might Have Heard About'". The Atlantic.
- ^ a b Brookins, Jake Casella (December 24, 2024). "Review: On the Calculation of Volume I by Solvej Balle". Locus. Locus SF Foundation.
- ^ a b c "On the Calculation of Volume". The Booker Prizes. April 2025.
- ^ Marshall, Alex (April 8, 2025). "International Booker Prize Shortlist: 6 Books to Talk About". The New York Times. Retrieved April 10, 2025.
- ^ "The International Booker Prize 2025". Booker Prize Foundation. April 8, 2025.
- ^ Solvej Balle wins 2022 Nordic Council Literature Prize. Nordic Council Literature Prize. Helsinki. January 11, 2022.
- ^ a b Levitin, Mia (10 April 2025). "Another day in November". TLS. Retrieved 12 April 2025.
External links
[edit]- Official website New Horizons
- Official website Faber & Farber.