The Human Body: A Novel

Description

From the author of Heaven and Earth, a searing novel of the journey from youth into manhood A heartrending, at times darkly comic but ultimately redemptive novel, Paolo Giordano's The Human Body is an exploration of brotherhood and family, of modern war and the wars we wage within ourselves. It is a novel that reminds us of what it means to be human. A platoon of young men and a single woman leave Italy for one of the most dangerous places on earth. At their forward operating base in Afghanistan-an exposed sandpit scorched by inescapable sunlight and mortar fire-this band of inexperienced soldiers navigates the irreversible journey from youth to adulthood. But when a much-debated mission goes devastatingly awry, their lives are changed in an instant. And on their return home, they will confront the most difficult challenge of all- to create a life worth living.

Paolo Giordano is the author of the critically acclaimed international bestseller The Solitude of Prime Numbers, which has been translated into more than forty languages. Giordano has a PhD in particle physics and is now a full-time writer. He lives in Italy.

"The Human Body is a great novel of life in wartime: a chronicle of war's multifarious crimes against the body and soul, and a heartfelt meditation on how men, together and collectively, repair the burdens of their fate." -Joshua Ferris, author of To Rise Again at a Decent Hour "Paolo Giordano's new novel, like his last, is full of sensitivity and intelligence. The Human Body is a brilliant addition to the literature of our modern wars." -Kevin Powers, author of The Yellow Birds "With an extraordinarily keen eye and a pitch-perfect ear, Giordano has magnificently captured the surreal existence of the modern soldier. By turn poignant and gripping - when not downright hilarious - every page of The Human Body rings with an authenticity and appreciation of the absurd that very few novelists writing about men stumbling about the business of war have achieved. Very few indeed; think of O'Brien's Going After Cacciato or Heller's Catch-22, because Giordano is just that good." -Scott Anderson, author of Lawrence in Arabia "Paolo Giordano has written his generation's war novel. Tender, cruel, beautiful, heartless, a brilliant story of desire and youth and death in Afghanistan. Readers of Kevin Powers have been searching for another modern classic, and The Human Body is it." -Andrew Sean Greer, author of The Impossible Lives of Greta Wells "Giordano follows THE SOLITUDE OF PRIME NUMBERS with a stunning exploration of war. Giordano makes the tedium of combat fascinating with his well-drawn characters. The first page indicates that the platoon's experience was particularly horrible... but the fact that the mission runs off the rails is almost secondary to the beauty, texture, and acuity with which Giordano captures the day-to-day routines of the soldiers, and their efforts to make sense of both their lives in Italy and their military assignment." -Publishers Weekly (starred review) "The Human Body is a memorable entry in the literature of the Afghan war, the characters crisply drawn and the writing full of telling details." -Booklist "Despite the tragic events, this is a very entertaining novel, with the characters' innate and passionate sense of the absurdity of their situation, and of life itself, evident in every scene. The fast-paced, present-tense narrative seems to have been translated accurately to capture the nuances of emotion and drama conveyed by the highly intelligent and perceptive Giordano." -Library Journal (starred review) "Giordano's (The Solitude of Prime Numbers, 2010) unorthodox Afghanistan war novel is short on action but rich in psychological insight.... As the title suggests, the book is less about military heroism than the devastating human impact of combat. Well-observed and compassionate, this is a memorable look at imperfect people in extreme circumstances."-Kirkus Selected praise for Paolo Giordano's THE SOLITUDE OF PRIME NUMBERS: "Mesmerizing . . . [Giordano] works with piercing subtlety. An exquisite rendering of what one might call feelings at the subatomic level." -The New York Times "The story-the explanation, really-of how two people come to find solitude more comforting than companionship is the subtle work of Giordano's haunting novel, a finely tuned machine powered by the perverse mechanics of need." -The New York Times Book Review "Seductive and unnerving." -Entertainment Weekly "The elegant and fiercely intelligent debut novel by 27-year-old physicist Paolo Giordano, The Solitude of Prime Numbers revolves around Mattia and Alice, friends since high school-'twin primes, alone and lost, close but not close enough to really touch each other,' wherein resides the seductive enchantment of this singular love story." -Elle "Giordano's passionate evocation of being young and in despair will resonate strongly with readers." -USA Today "Elegant." -Los Angeles Times