A contemporary classic from the Czech Republic.

To support his family, a man submits himself to a solo science experiment in the High Andes. This is a cosmic adventure story of big ideas and murder.

Your business is dead. It seems like a deal: leave your family behind in Prague for a year, isolate yourself in a research station in the Andes, and come home with a fortune. With a treatise on black holes for company, Jakob settles in at altitude. The air is thin. Strangers pass by on dangerous pilgrimage while his young wife and kids take life in his mind. In mountain starkness, the big questions take shape: like what happens to love inside a black hole?

About the Author
The Jewish-Czech author Martin Vopenka is one of the leading voices in world literature, writing with 'with a deft and compellingly simple control of sentences that is reminiscent of both Kafka and Kundera' - Choice. Martin Vopenka was born in Prague in 1963. The son of the famous mathematician Petr Vopenka, Martin studied Mathematics and Physics at the Czech Technical University in Prague, but was always intent on being a writer. His first novel, Kameny z hor (Rocks from the Mountains) recorded memories and emotions from a journey across the Romanian Carpathians. The themes explored in his books go beyond the local themes of much Czech literature. He views the contemporary world with caution, and contributes polemic articles to the national daily paper MF Dnes. In 2016 his Nova Planeta (New Planet) won the country's premier Golden Ribbon Award.

Reviews
"Ably translated from the original Czech by Hana Sklenkova, The Fifth Dimension is a weighty and at times challenging read, its themes nothing less than life, death, the universe and love. It is absorbing, haunting and intellectually engaging throughout, with a gut-punch denouement." - James Lovegrove, The Financial Times



Book Information
ISBN 9781909954083
Author Martin Vopenka
Format Paperback
Page Count 288
Imprint Barbican Press
Publisher Barbican Press