Publishers Weekly Best Books of 2023 Caught between realities, a mathematician, a book dealer, and a mobster desperately seek a notorious book that disappears upon being read. Only the author, a rakish sci-fi writer, knows whether his popular novel is truthful or a hoax. In a story that is cosmic, inventive, and sly, multi-award-winning author Lavie Tidhar (Central Station) travels from the emergence of life to the very ends of the universe. “Ingeniously constructed and stylistically protean, this seven-course banquet of a novel glistens with the Golden Age of science fiction, even as it nourishes our neurons with a marvelous thought experiment.” ― James Morrow, award-winning author of Shambling Towards Hiroshima Delia Welegtabit discovered two things during her childhood on a South Pacific island: her love for mathematics and a novel that isn’t supposed to exist. But the elusive book proves unexpectedly dangerous. Oskar Lens, a science fiction-obsessed mobster in the midst of an existential crisis, will stop at nothing to find the novel. After Delia’s husband Levi goes missing, she seeks help from Daniel Chase, a young, face-blind book dealer. The infamous novel Lode Stars was written by the infamous Eugene Charles Hartley: legendary pulp science-fiction writer and founder of the Church of the All-Seeing Eyes. In Hartley’s novel, a doppelganger of Delia searches for her missing father in a strange star system. But is any of Lode Stars real? Was Hartley a cynical conman on a quest for wealth and immortality, creating a religion he did not believe in? Or was he a visionary who truly discovered the secrets of the universe? Guardian : Five of the Best Science Fiction and Fantasy Books of 2023 Publishers Weekly Best Books of 2023 New Scientist 13 Best New Science Fiction Books of 2023 Literary Hub September’s Best Sci-Fi and Fantasy Books Aurist October's Best-Written Recent Releases in SF/Fantasy/Horror Foreword Book of the Day Los Angeles Public Library: Best Fiction and Literature of 2023 Locus Recommended Reading List Book and Film Globe Most Meta of 2023 Portalist Favorite Sci-Fi and Fantasy Books of 2023 “Inventive, thought-provoking, audacious and, as ever with Tidhar, superbly readable, this is where his genius lies.” ― Guardian [STARRED REVIEW] “World Fantasy Award winner Tidhar (Neom) wows with a mind-bending existential adventure that seeks to answer the age-old question of why humanity exists. In 2001 London, four characters converge around the lost science fiction book Lode Stars , written decades earlier by Eugene Charles Hartley. It’s rumored that Hartley, who also founded the sketchy Church of God’s All-Seeing Eyes, discovered the ‘true nature of reality’ and encoded it into the novel, which follows heroine Delia as she searches for her father. The novel also posits that humans are reconstructed memories swirling inside black holes, which are the eyes of God, and that alien ‘eaters’ feed on these reconstituted humans. Only possession of Lode Stars itself can ward off this danger. Albino mathematician Delia Welegtabit, who happens to have the same name as Lode Star’s heroine, is drawn into the hunt for the book by her husband, obsessive mathematician Levi. When Levi disappears, Delia turns to Daniel Chase, a rare book collector, to investigate―but then Daniel is himself kidnapped by mobster Oskar Lens, who believes in the book’s power and wants it to protect him from the eaters. Toggling between perspectives and the ethereal text of Lode Stars , Tidhar’s slippery metafictional tale lyrically entangles scientific fact, mysticism, and mental illness. This is a knockout. ” ― Publishers Weekly [STARRED REVIEW] “Inquisitive, daring, and rich with possibilities, The Circumference of the World is a speculative masterpiece.” ― Foreword “Brilliant and bizarre, Lavie Tidhar’s The Circumference of the World is many things―but fundamentally it is a love letter to the Golden Age of science fiction.” ―Molly Tanzer, author of Vermilion and Creatures of Will and Temper “ The Circumference of the World is an ambitious and ambiguous book showing Tidhar at top form.” ― Chicago Review of Books “Tidhar’s rich portrayal of the pulpy golden age of science fiction, distinctive characters, and nimble turns of phrase make for a cool confection.” ― Kirkus “Longtime SF readers will easily spot the real-world parallels, but that doesn’t stop Tidhar from telling a compelling story of obsession and greed that will make readers think about the nature of reality. VERDICT Readers who fell hard into the metafiction of The Night Ocean by Paul La Farge or the you-are-there gossip of Astounding by Alec Nevala-Lee will likely be as obsessed with this book as the characters are with Lode Stars .” ― Library Journal “Tidhar’s melancholy, beautiful and yet improbably light-touch narrative, meanwhile, is structured like a nesting doll.” ― New Scientist “In