On the Calculation of Volume
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.”
A NEW YORKER BEST BOOK OF 2024
A WASHINGTON POST NOTABLE BOOK OF 2024
SHORTLISTED FOR THE INTERNATIONAL BOOKER PRIZE
LONGLISTED FOR THE NATIONAL BOOK AWARD FOR TRANSLATED LITERATURE
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.”
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Solvej Balle
Solvej Balle (b. 1962) is a unique voice in Danish literature. She was part of a group of mainly female writers who debuted or established themselves in the early 1990s. Balle published her debut novel, “Lyrefugl,” in 1986 and gained fame in the 1990s with her novel “Ifølge loven.” Since then, she has published very few works, so it was a surprise when Balle announced in 2020 an ambitious and philosophical seven-part work, “Om udregning af rumfang,” for which she received the Nordic Council Literature Prize in 2022, for the first four parts.
On the Calculation of Volume
On the Calculation of Volume invites readers into a world where time loops endlessly, and every repetition deepens the weight of human experience. At the center is Tara Selter, a rare books dealer who wakes on the same November 18th again and again, while the world around her continues unaware. In this ceaseless day, the ordinary becomes extraordinary, and the familiar reveals hidden patterns, subtle choices, and the fragility of connection.
On the Calculation of Volume consists of four books and series is set to expand with the upcoming release of one more book. The current recommended reading order for the series is provided below.
