Submergence 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. About Amazon US  Amazon UK 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.” &nbspMinneapolis 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.” &nbsp 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 More reviews Tumblr (3.0; @submergencethebook)http://submergencethebook.tumblr.com/<p><a href="http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/books/2013/04/there-is-another-world-in-our-world-a-conversation-with-jm-ledgard.html" target="_blank">The New Yorker</a>: &#8220;There is another world in our world.&#8221;</p>http://submergencethebook.tumblr.com/post/49344911076http://submergencethebook.tumblr.com/post/49344911076Wed, 01 May 2013 03:15:27 -0400<p>NPR&#8217;s <a href="http://www.npr.org/2013/04/05/176368223/book-review-submergence" target="_blank">All Things Considered</a>  &#8220;An extraordinary fusion of science and lyricism.&#8221;</p>http://submergencethebook.tumblr.com/post/47773177367http://submergencethebook.tumblr.com/post/47773177367Fri, 12 Apr 2013 06:50:00 -0400<img src="http://25.media.tumblr.com/8fe10387f4af8ee145603e4ad5424b00/tumblr_mk2z5lGklw1r0tdg3o1_r1_500.jpg"/><br/><br/><p>The American edition of Submergence</p>http://submergencethebook.tumblr.com/post/46015694285http://submergencethebook.tumblr.com/post/46015694285Fri, 22 Mar 2013 17:17:00 -0400<p><a href="http://www.publishersweekly.com/978-1-56689-319-0" target="_blank">Publishers Weekly</a> &#8221;Beautiful, remarkable, remarkably intelligent.&#8221;</p>http://submergencethebook.tumblr.com/post/43152482140http://submergencethebook.tumblr.com/post/43152482140Fri, 15 Feb 2013 11:08:00 -0500<img src="http://25.media.tumblr.com/b8b43b2452eb5dee4761b3806b177dbc/tumblr_mgj3emFDDz1r0tdg3o1_500.jpg"/><br/><br/><div> <p>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.</p> <p>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.</p> </div>http://submergencethebook.tumblr.com/post/40358869591http://submergencethebook.tumblr.com/post/40358869591Sat, 12 Jan 2013 14:56:00 -0500<img src="http://24.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_m1iatpZS1A1r0tdg3o1_500.jpg"/><br/><br/><p><span class="Apple-style-span">This is just the beginning of submergence</span></p>http://submergencethebook.tumblr.com/post/19963397591http://submergencethebook.tumblr.com/post/19963397591Mon, 26 Mar 2012 15:15:25 -0400<img src="http://24.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_m1iao34fvu1r0tdg3o1_500.jpg"/><br/><br/><div> <p>The British edition of Submergence</p> </div>http://submergencethebook.tumblr.com/post/19963245520http://submergencethebook.tumblr.com/post/19963245520Mon, 26 Mar 2012 15:12:02 -0400<img src="http://24.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_m0opozz63C1r0tdg3o1_400.jpg"/><br/><br/><p><span class="Apple-style-span">El Eternauta is an Argentine condemned to voyage space for eternity. There is something of his forbearance in James More, the protagonist of Submergence</span></p>http://submergencethebook.tumblr.com/post/19072490681http://submergencethebook.tumblr.com/post/19072490681Sat, 10 Mar 2012 14:48:34 -0500<img src="http://24.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_m0opki9baM1r0tdg3o1_500.jpg"/><br/><br/><p>The Dutch edition of Submergence</p>http://submergencethebook.tumblr.com/post/19072348014http://submergencethebook.tumblr.com/post/19072348014Sat, 10 Mar 2012 14:45:54 -0500<img src="http://25.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_m0ke2si2Ev1r0tdg3o1_400.jpg"/><br/><br/><p>Borges</p>http://submergencethebook.tumblr.com/post/18944771739http://submergencethebook.tumblr.com/post/18944771739Thu, 08 Mar 2012 06:47:00 -0500<p>The British prime minister tells the BBC Somali service that jihadists in Somalia are a substantial security threat to the United Kingdom</p>http://submergencethebook.tumblr.com/post/18061997189http://submergencethebook.tumblr.com/post/18061997189Wed, 22 Feb 2012 02:35:00 -0500<p>Submergence is named book of the year in Monocle Magazine</p>http://submergencethebook.tumblr.com/post/18019054403http://submergencethebook.tumblr.com/post/18019054403Tue, 21 Feb 2012 13:37:00 -0500<img src="http://25.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_lyneazM8Or1r0tdg3o1_r1_500.jpg"/><br/><br/><p>The author is a literary ambassador for the Swiss watch company <a href="http://www.iwc.com/en-us/collection/ingenieur/IW3236/" target="_blank">IWC</a></p>http://submergencethebook.tumblr.com/post/16807238153http://submergencethebook.tumblr.com/post/16807238153Tue, 31 Jan 2012 00:37:00 -0500<p>Submergence is named book of the year in Word Magazine</p>http://submergencethebook.tumblr.com/post/16806420964http://submergencethebook.tumblr.com/post/16806420964Tue, 31 Jan 2012 00:18:00 -0500<img src="http://25.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_lxoyriIjlC1r0tdg3o1_500.jpg"/><br/><br/><p>Look to the waterline</p>http://submergencethebook.tumblr.com/post/15723910487http://submergencethebook.tumblr.com/post/15723910487Thu, 12 Jan 2012 10:23:42 -0500<p>Submergence is flagged as a &#8220;species survival&#8221; book by the Royal African Society</p>http://submergencethebook.tumblr.com/post/15723784774http://submergencethebook.tumblr.com/post/15723784774Thu, 12 Jan 2012 10:19:00 -0500<img src="http://25.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_lxoyiydx4t1r0tdg3o1_r2_500.jpg"/><br/><br/><p>This is another life</p>http://submergencethebook.tumblr.com/post/15723766834http://submergencethebook.tumblr.com/post/15723766834Thu, 12 Jan 2012 10:18:00 -0500<p><span>Submergence is named “coolly brilliant&#8221; book of the year in the Glasgow Herald</span></p>http://submergencethebook.tumblr.com/post/13534868140http://submergencethebook.tumblr.com/post/13534868140Wed, 30 Nov 2011 00:17:00 -0500<img src="http://25.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_lv22kpXIgb1r0tdg3o1_500.jpg"/><br/><br/><p>Detail of Bruegel’s painting The Fall of the Rebel Angels</p> <p>“<em>Pieter Bruegel the Elder’s painting The Fall of the Rebel Angels shows us there really is a force to subtraction: you subtract from an angel until you end up with a demon. If you download an image of the painting onto your computer, or better yet see it hanging in the Royal Museum of Arts in Antwerp, you will notice how the rebel angels fall from heaven at the top left of the canvas to hell at the bottom right. Their wings are at first subtracted for the lesser wings of bats and dragons. Towards the earth they are reduced to moths, frogs and other soft things. They are driven together by the golden angels of heaven armed with effulgent discs, lances and swords, whose task it is to sanitise our world. You will see how the rebel angels continue to change their forms as they are driven into a sea, whose opening is an obscure drainpipe. They lose their legs, wings, all hope of surfacing, and become fish, squid, spawn and seeds of trees never to be planted. Underwater they continue to be subtracted from their former selves until they are at last incorporeal and see-through at the bottom.</em>”</p>http://submergencethebook.tumblr.com/post/13152937621http://submergencethebook.tumblr.com/post/13152937621Tue, 22 Nov 2011 04:34:01 -0500<p><span>The British foreign secretary admits <a href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/defence/8893027/MI6-spies-died-in-battle-against-al-Qaeda-William-Hague-to-say.html" target="_blank">here</a> that MI6 officers have died preventing terrorist attacks</span></p>http://submergencethebook.tumblr.com/post/13152850501http://submergencethebook.tumblr.com/post/13152850501Tue, 22 Nov 2011 04:28:19 -0500