Book summary

Four stories and two novellas, most of them oriented toward the sciences--Andrea Barrett's specialty--and several of them interconnected. Titles include "Theories of Rain" and "The Mysteries of Ubiquitin." The title novella is a strange, detailed account of a mathematician in India in the 1860s who is part of a project to map the Himalayas, consisting of both his letters home to his wife and his much franker narrative that she will never see. In this collection, Barrett brings back characters from previous stories, including the sisters Rose and Bianca. A New York Times Notable Book for 2002.

Media reviews

"As in her previous books..., Ms. Barrett demonstrates her ability in these pages to write as persuasively about the mysteries of science as she does about the mysteries of the human heart, as vividly about distant landscapes as she does about the domestic rituals of daily life....Whereas in the past Ms. Barrett's storytelling sometimes curdled into melodrama and contrivance..., these stories possess a wonderful clarity and ease, the serene authority of a writer working at the very height of her powers."