The New Yorker: “There is another world in our world.”
Submergence
By J.M. LedgardSubmergence is a novel by the writer J.M. Ledgard. In this site we want to add a few thoughts and images which circled around the book as it was being written – and afterwards. We hope you enjoy.
Reviews
"Every once in a while, a critic will be mesmerized by a book that stands out from — even wipes the floor with — all other books that have come his way of late. J.M. Ledgard’s “Submergence” is that kind of book." Minneapolis Star Tribune April 11th Malcom Forbes
"The influence of the great German original WG Sebald breathes through the book, yet this is to Ledgard’s advantage. There is no disputing that Ledgard is an elegant, determinedly intellectual and disciplined writer, yet there is also immense humanity in this novel, which deserves to be one of the strongest challengers for this year’s Man Booker Prize. Fiction at its finest recognises no boundaries, and here is an artist’s novel that achieves the ultimate goal of any writer: it makes us pause and think, and think again." The Irish Times Jul 16th Eileen Battersby
"Submergence is writing of awesome power. In a profound meditation on cruelty, pity, belief, art, science, hope, love and mortality, the novel's truths settle in your consciousness, perhaps never to be forgotten." The Independent Aug 24th Nicholas Royle
"It's the only fiction I've read in the last few years that has left me open mouthed. Here are the kind of revelations that can make our heads hurt. Its central idea, brilliantly articulated, is that when it comes to geopolitics, the human body, our importance on the planet, the dark seething depths of the Atlantic Ocean, and the equally inscrutable contents of our own hearts, we really don't know the half of it." Word Magazine Nov 1st, David Hepworth
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NPR’s All Things Considered “An extraordinary fusion of science and lyricism.”
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Publishers Weekly ”Beautiful, remarkable, remarkably intelligent.”
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Last night a French secret service raid on a jihadist base in Somalia to free the French spy Denis Allex. Five helicopters were used in the raid, which left two French commandos and an unknown number of militants dead. The French intelligence chief reports that Allex (his pseudonym) had certainly been executed by his captors. Al-Qaeda fighters deny that, saying Allex was elsewhere and proof of life will be provided within 48 hours.
James More, the captured British spy in Submergence, in no way is meant to represent Allex. But the author often thought in detail of the inhumane conditions Allex was held in, remembered him through the writing of the book, and remembers him now.
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El Eternauta is an Argentine condemned to voyage space for eternity. There is something of his forbearance in James More, the protagonist of Submergence
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"Well Liked" by Peter Vidani. For Tumblr.
© 2011–2013 Submergence
