Love and Other Thought Experiments, Sophie Ward
Love and Other Thought Experiments, Sophie Ward
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Love and Other Thought Experiments

Author: Sophie Ward

Narrator: Sophie Ward

Unabridged: 7 hr 44 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 09/28/2021

Synopsis

This impressive debut novel, longlisted for the 2020 Booker Prize, takes its premise and inspiration from ten of the best-known thought experiments in philosophy—the what-ifs of philosophical investigation—and uses them to talk about love in a wholly unique way.

Married couple Rachel and Eliza are considering having a child. Rachel wants one desperately, and Eliza thinks she does, too, but she can't quite seem to wrap her head around the idea. When Rachel wakes up screaming one night and tells Eliza that an ant has crawled into her eye and is stuck there, Eliza initially sees it as a cry for attention. But Rachel is adamant. She knows it sounds crazy—but she also knows it's true. As a scientist, Eliza is skeptical. Suddenly their entire relationship is called into question.

What follows is a uniquely imaginative sequence of ten interconnecting episodes—each from a different character's perspective—inspired by some of the best-known thought experiments in philosophy. Together they form a sparkling philosophical tale of love lost and found across the universe.

About The Author

SOPHIE WARD is an actor and a writer. She has published articles in The Times, The Sunday Times, The Guardian, The Observer, The Spectator, Diva, and Red magazine, and her short stories have been published in the anthologies Finding A Voice, Book of Numbers, The Spiral Path, and The Gold Room. Her book A Marriage Proposal: The Importance of Equal Marriage and What it Means for All of Us was published as a Guardian short eBook in 2014. In 2018, Sophie won the Pindrop short story award for "Sunbed." She has a degree in philosophy and literature and a PhD from Goldsmiths, University of London, on the use of narrative in philosophy of mind.‍

Reviews

Goodreads review by Gumble's Yard - Golden Reviewer on June 10, 2021

I read this book solely due to its longlisting on the 2020 Booker Prize. I mention that because I think it showcases what (at least based on first impressions – I have finished 10 and started 2 of the 13 books at this stage) seems to be the most impressive element of this year’s longlist – the judge......more

Goodreads review by Paul on August 22, 2020

One of the consequences of the nadir of the Booker Prize, the 2011 ‘Zipalongability’ list, was the creation of the Goldsmiths Prize, by Goldsmiths University, “established in 2013, to celebrate the qualities of creative daring associated with the College and to reward fiction that breaks the mould o......more

Goodreads review by Eric on July 28, 2020

I’ve sometimes dipped into reading science and philosophy out of a curiosity to better understand the world and the nature of being, but I often find these texts too formal and dry to engage with for very long. So it’s enlivening to read Sophie Ward’s conceptual novel which is a series of interlinke......more

Goodreads review by Meike on July 30, 2020

Longlisted for the Booker Prize 2020 Ward's debut is an experimental novel that cleverly merges philosophical investigations into the nature of love and reality with literature or, to be more exact, with narrative games on how our decisions and random destiny plot the storylines of our lives. Each of......more

Goodreads review by Doug on September 27, 2020

4.5, rounded down This is probably the most innovative and imaginative of the Booker longlist this year (or should I say, of the 8 I have read so far), and it certainly requires one's brain cells to be firing on all cylinders in order to catch all the subtle interplay of ideas. Although I am fairly c......more

Quotes

LONGLISTED FOR THE BOOKER PRIZE
SHORTLISTED FOR THE MCKITTERICK PRIZE
LONGLISTED FOR THE DESMOND ELLIOT PRIZE
LONGLISTED FOR THE POLARI BOOK PRIZE

"Ingenious." —The Guardian

"Intriguing. . . . The author’s grasp on the ideas at play effectively and poignantly connects readers with the characters’ grief." —Publishers Weekly

"A conspicuously erudite, skilfully observed debut novel." —Telegraph (UK)

"Ward has achieved something quite extraordinary: a super-smart, metaphysical romp that's also warm, wistful and heartfelt." —Daily Telegraph (UK)

"The sheer literary ambition on show is impressive, with Ward producing a highly original first novel that also echoes European experimentalists such as Kundera and Krasznahorkai." —Spectator (UK)

"An imaginative and original synthesis of fiction and philosophy" —Irish Times

"Ward is as skilful an observer as she is an abstract thinker, and so her characters, while fulfilling their roles as illustrators of theories, also burst with life." —Sunday Telegraph (UK)

"A refershing puzzle to unpick." —Diva Magazine (UK)

"It’s rare for me to fall for a novel that could be called ‘experimental’ but this genuinely blew my mind." —The Literary Sofa

"A towering literary achievement." —Ruth Hogan, author of The Keeper of Lost Things

"Philosophy meets fiction in this beguiling and intriguing novel of minds, hearts, other worlds, love, death and everything in between. It's a book that dances and dazzles with ideas and left me thinking long after I finished it." —Sophie Kinsella

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