On the Calculation of Volume (Book III)

Solvej Balle

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SHORTLISTED FOR THE NATIONAL BOOK AWARD FOR TRANSLATED LITERATURE

In the marvelous third installment of Balle's "astonishing" (The Washington Post) septology, Tara's November 18th transforms when she discovers that she is no longer alone in her endless autumnal day. For she has met someone who remembers, and who knows as well as she does that "it is autumn, but that we're not heading into winter. That spring and summer will not follow. That the reds and yellows of the trees are here to stay. That yesterday doesn't mean the seventeenth of November, that tomorrow means the eighteenth, and that the nineteenth is a day we may never see." Where Book I and II focused on a single woman's involuntary journey away from her life and her loved ones and into the chasm of time, Book III brings us back into the realm of companionship, with all its thrills, odd quirks, and a sense of mutual bewilderment at having to relearn how to exist alongside others in a shared reality. And then of course, what of Tara's husband Thomas, still sitting alone day after day, entirely unawares, in their house in Clarion-sous-Bois, waiting for his wife to return? Blending poetry and philosophical inquiry with rich reflections on our discombobulating times, Balle's On the Calculation of Volume asks us to consider: What is a single person's responsibility to humanity and to the preservation of this world?

Book Details

Publisher: New Directions Publishing Corporation
Publish Date: Nov 18th, 2025
Pages: 144
Language: English
Edition: undefined - undefined
Dimensions: 7.90in - 5.10in - 0.70in - 0.40lb
EAN: 9780811238397
Categories: • Science Fiction - General• Women• World Literature - Denmark

About the Author

Balle, Solvej: - Solvej Balle was born in 1962, made her debut in 1986 with Lyrefugl, and she went on to write one of the 1990s' most acclaimed works of Danish literature, According to the Law: Four Accounts of Mankind (praised by Publishers Weekly for its blend of "sly humor, bleak vision, and terrified sense of the absurd with a tacit intuition that the world has a meaning not yet fathomed"). Since then, she's published a book on art theory, Det umuliges kunst, 2005, a political memoir Frydendal og andre gidsler, 2008, and two books of short prose Hvis and Så, published simultaneously in 2013. On the Calculation of Volume is Solvej Balle's major comeback, not just to Danish or Nordic fiction, but--expanding the possibilities of the novel--to all of world literature.

Russell: - Sophia Hersi Smith and Jennifer Russell are translators living in Copenhagen. Together, they have translated fiction and poetry by Danish writers such as Tove Ditlevsen, Marianne Larsen, and Rakel Haslund-Gjerrild.

Critics’ reviews

Praise for this book

As Tara's circle expands, so does the world of the book. Small as it is, Tara's new society makes for a number of twists in Balle's narrative puzzle.--Emma Alpern "Vulture"

As engrossing as what preceded it.-- "Complete Review"

On the Calculation of Volume is a thrilling example of what an author can do with narrative when time doesn't work in a traditional way. It's a tragic story with so many moments of hope.-- "The Maris Review"

A remarkably porous narrative that absorbs the anxieties of modern life and time itself--supply chain shortages, globalism, and climate change, but also universally timeless fears of being alive--love, death, and mortality.--Dilara O'Neil "The Nation"

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 masterwork... In this extraordinary novel, as in our own shattered world, connection alone may be the one thing that endures.--Jacob Brogan "The Washington Post"

A thrilling journey... This volume is a galvanising shift, and a subversive one, humming with new possibility.--Chris Power "The Observer"

The effect of the time-loop device is propulsive yet lulling: the premise grabs us with its gimmickry, then it amplifies the motions and textures that we already know... If the series' conceit literalizes the mismatches in our intimate relationships, it also dramatizes a person grappling with her finitude.--Katy Waldman "The New Yorker"

For the reader the series' seductive qualities are only deepening. A brainy and beguiling meditation on time and purpose.-- "Kirkus"

Endlessly fascinating, supple, and tenderly human, Balle's masterpiece reaches new heights.-- "Publishers Weekly (starred)"

This novel of repetition reveals the remarkable richness of each moment. Balle's spare, attentive prose demonstrates the way careful attention can transform seemingly familiar silences into a lushly textured masterwork of sound.--Meghan Racklin "The Believer"

Balle's language is consistent in its clarity, and also in the way it toggles among modes within the span of a paragraph: attentiveness to physical details and scientific processes, an evocation of memory and a sense of wonder in the face of the ordinary.--Dennis Zhou "The New York Times Magazine"

Mesmerizing... an ambitious experiment nearly four decades in the making.--Colin Dwyer "NPR"

I'm willing to wait for as many November 18s as it takes.--Cory Oldweiler "Los Angeles Review of Books"

Balle's piercing attentiveness and her forensic curiosity continue to render 18 November endlessly interesting. Her sinuous sentences wrap themselves around us, her readers, binding us over and over to 18 November, drawing us deeper and deeper into its ungraspable possibilities.--Clare Clark "The Guardian"

This is the ancient fact that Tara's absurd condition makes explicit: how storytelling systematizes our memories, our sense of self.--Conor Truax "The Baffler"