Kepler

Volume two of John Banville's Revolutions Trilogy.

Narrative art at a positively symphonic level.

One knows one is in the presence of a writer extraordinary. Wearing his vast research lightly, Mr Banville not only summons Kepler and his company of vivid souls but leads us into the small dark rooms.

This very distinguished novel . . . is done with very considerable skill; it suggests that this is what such a life must indeed have been like and the result is a wonderfully human figure, rife with feelings, principles, regrets and courage.

An outstandingly good novel . . . a novel that dramatizes and celebrates intellectual passion. Which makes it a very rare novel indeed.

John Banville was born in Wexford, Ireland, in 1945. He is the author of many highly acclaimed novels including The Sea , which won the 2005 Man Booker Prize and two further novels on scientific subjects, Doctor Copernicus and The Newton Letter. He has received a literary award from the Lannan Foundation. He lives in Dublin.