On the Calculation of Volume (Book IV)

Reviews

"“Balle’s novel is a startling exploration of profound questions about language, human connection, and time.”" — The New Yorker’s “Best Books of 2024"

"The time-stuck protagonist of Solvej Balle’s miraculous septology has been trapped in the same day with no end in sight. On the Calculation of Volume is a literary phenomenon nearly 40 years in the making. It’s a speculative masterwork and long-awaited comeback of a now-62-year-old writer.”" — Cat Zhang, New York Magazine

"“The novel’s propulsive imaginative brilliance lies in Tara’s metaphoric search for a language with which to communicate the sheer incomprehensibility of her condition”" — Morten Høi Jensen, The Washington Post

"“What the best novels can do is open up spaces. And she has opened a space in time, and it is absolutely, absolutely incredible. I think it’s a fantastic book.” " — Karl Ove Knausgaard

"“If time has ceased flowing for Tara, for the reader its flow is exhilarating, propelling us through the slender pages of these two compact volumes, each of which ends on a tantalizing cliff-hanger, inciting our desire for more (that the third and fourth installments will not be available in English until November 2025 is, for me, a terrible cruelty!).”" — Ania Szremski, 4Columns

"“In Solvej Balle’s new series, the concept of a time loop is more than a gimmick; it’s a way of rethinking human existence.” " — Rhian Sasseen, The Atlantic

"“A steady, careful, and deeply disquieting estrangement of a single day, it is impossible to put down.” " — Kate Briggs

"“Solvej Balle is a prodigious writer who, miraculously, finds the subtlest, most fascinating differences in repetition. You have never read anything like On the Calculation of Volume. This unforgettable novel is a profound meditation on the lonely, untranslatable ways in which each one of us inhabits time—and the tenuous yet indelible traces we leave in the world. Day after day.”" — Hernan Diaz

"A speculative novel that, with each new volume, feels ever more intensely about the present. A lively entry in a provocative series, thick with questions about morals and ethics." — Kirkus Reviews (Starred)