Charles, a once-promising poet, is a professor at a minor liberal arts college, admiring of passion but without passion himself. Now living a desperately comfortable existence, he decides to return to his thirtieth college reunion. While there, he relives an intense love affair he had with a beautiful ballerina that forever changed his life. At times shocked, admiring, and furious with his younger self, Charles remembers contradictory versions of events, until reality and identity dissolve into a haze of illusion. Reunion explores the pain of self-examination, the clay-like nature of memory,...
Charles, a once-promising poet, is a professor at a minor liberal arts college, admiring of passion but without passion himself. Now living a desperat...
In this captivating and lucid book, novelist and science writer Alan Lightman chronicles twenty-four great discoveries of twentieth-century science--everything from the theory of relativity to mapping the structure of DNA.These discoveries radically changed our notions of the world and our place in it. Here are Einstein, Fleming, Bohr, McClintock, Paul ing, Watson and Crick, Heisenberg and many others. With remarkable insight, Lightman charts the intellectual and emotional landscape of the time, portrays the human drama of discovery, and explains the significance and impact of the work....
In this captivating and lucid book, novelist and science writer Alan Lightman chronicles twenty-four great discoveries of twentieth-century science--e...
From the bestselling author of Einstein s Dreams comes this harrowing tale of one man's struggle to cope in a wired world, even as his own biological wiring short-circuits. As Boston s Red Line shuttles Bill Chalmers to work one summer morning, something extraordinary happens. Suddenly, he can't remember which stop is his, where he works, or even who he is. The only thing he can remember is his corporate motto: the maximum information in the minimum time. Bill s memory returns, but a strange numbness afflicts him. As he attempts to find a diagnosis for his deteriorating illness, he...
From the bestselling author of Einstein s Dreams comes this harrowing tale of one man's struggle to cope in a wired world, even as his own biol...
Now, Alan Lightman, the author of the brilliantly original bestselling novel Einstein's Dreams, presents the real-life drama of astronomy, a journey far into the stars that outpaces any fiction for adventure and excitement. Unsurpassed in its authoritativeness, TIME FOR THE STARS is based on the report of the National Academy of Science's Astronomy and Astrophysics Survey Committee, for whose science panel Alan Lightman served as chair. Here is a book that will introduce you to cosmic puzzles about people and planets stars and galaxies, and the beginnings and the ends of the universe. How do...
Now, Alan Lightman, the author of the brilliantly original bestselling novel Einstein's Dreams, presents the real-life drama of astronomy, a journey f...
Bestselling author Lightman selects the year's finest nonfiction as this acclaimed series celebrates its 15th year. This year's pieces embrace stylistic freedom and strong opinions by Jamaica Kincaid, Edward Hoagland, Cynthia Oznick, Mary Gordon, Edwidge Danticat, and others.
Bestselling author Lightman selects the year's finest nonfiction as this acclaimed series celebrates its 15th year. This year's pieces embrace stylist...
A modern classic, Einstein's Dreams is a fictional collage of stories dreamed by Albert Einstein in 1905, about time, relativity and physics. As the defiant but sensitive young genius is creating his theory of relativity, a new conception of time, he imagines many possible worlds. In one, time is circular, so that people are fated to repeat triumphs and failures over and over. In another, there is a place where time stands still, visited by lovers and parents clinging to their children. In another, time is a nightingale, sometimes trapped by a bell jar. Now translated into thirty...
A modern classic, Einstein's Dreams is a fictional collage of stories dreamed by Albert Einstein in 1905, about time, relativity and physics. A...
From the bestselling author of Einstein's Dreams comes this lyrical and insightful collection of science writing that delves into the mysteries of the scientific process--physics, astronomy, mathamatics--and exposes its beauty and intrigue.
In these brilliant essays, Lightman explores the emotional life of science, the power of imagination, the creative moment, and the alternate ways in which scientists and humanists think about the world. Along the way, he provides in-depth portraits of some of the great geniuses of our time, including Albert Einstein, Richard Feynman, Edward...
From the bestselling author of Einstein's Dreams comes this lyrical and insightful collection of science writing that delves into the myster...
Embarking on a provocative exploration of the delicate divide between the physical world and the spiritual world, between skepticism and faith, this novel from highly acclaimed author Lightman investigates timeless questions that continue to challenge contemporary society.
Embarking on a provocative exploration of the delicate divide between the physical world and the spiritual world, between skepticism and faith, this n...
A "WASHINGTON POST"NOTABLE BOOK OF THE YEAR Alan Lightman s grandfather M.A. was the family s undisputed patriarch. It was his movie theater empire that catapulted the Lightmans, a Hungarian Jewish immigrant family, to prominence in the South; his triumphs that would both galvanize and paralyze his descendants. In this evocative personal history, the author chronicles his return to Memphis and the stifling home he had been so eager to flee forty years earlier. As aging uncles and aunts retell old stories, Alan finds himself reconsidering long-held beliefs about his larger-than-life...
A "WASHINGTON POST"NOTABLE BOOK OF THE YEAR Alan Lightman s grandfather M.A. was the family s undisputed patriarch. It was his movie theater empir...
