Mobius Dick

Although possibly the most mind-bending novel I have picked up in a long while, this is also one of the most readable and thought provoking.

In fact, quite how I go about reviewing it is a bit of a dilemma, because the book is so packed with ideas that I would probably have to type the whole thing out to do it justice and what would be the point of that?

Very basically, then: Crumey weaves together the stories of a man called Harry, who has inexplicably lost his memory and finds himself being asked lots of questions in a hospital he does not remember getting to, with professor John Ringer, who travels to Scotland to give a talk about quantum physics.

As Harry's days roll by in a confused blur of timelessness, Ringer is drawn into a mysterious and highly secretive project that, when complete, will have the potential to create many co-existing universes by harnessing the energy of a quantum vacuum.

As Ringer's investigations proceed - aided by a woman who exactly resembles his former partner but denies being her - it becomes clear that the 'vacuum array' is up and running and doing some very strange things to reality.

One might think that that would be enough material for any respectable writer to mould into a page-turning novel, but there is much more to Crumey's book than this. He also gives us imagined/alternative moments in the lives of composer Robert Schumann, physicist Erwin Schrödinger and author Herman Melville; and he plays with ideas about coincidence, time, and predestination in the light-hearted way a cat plays with a ball of string.

Maybe another me in another world is doing a better job of this review, but for the here and now (wherever that may be) just take my advice and give it a go.

Great jacket by Sara Fanelli as well