Catalogue > Fiction
Anathem
Neal Stephenson
Reminiscent of a cross between Mervyn Peake, H. G. Wells and Umberto Eco, another inimitably and brilliantly original novel from the bestselling author of Snowcrash and Cryptonomicon.
Since childhood, Raz has lived behind the walls of a 3,400-year-old monastery, a sanctuary for scientists, philosophers, and mathematicians. There, he and his cohorts are sealed off from the illiterate, irrational, unpredictable “saecular” world, an endless landscape of casinos and megastores that is plagued by recurring cycles of booms and busts, dark ages and renaissances, world wars and climate change. Until the day that a higher power, driven by fear, decides it is only these cloistered scholars who have the abilities to avert an impending catastrophe. And, one by one, Raz and his friends, mentors, and teachers are summoned forth without warning into the unknown.
'The novel is beautifully written and, even though it runs to nearly 1,000 pages, it feels somehow too short, as though we're made to leave this carefully constructed world and return to our own before we're quite ready. A magnificent achievement'. Booklist (Starred)
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Hardback
Published September 2008
960 pages
ISBN: 978 1 84354 915 4
RRP: £18.99