AN OBSERVER BOOK OF THE YEAR From the acclaimed author of The Information & Chaos a mind-bending exploration of time travel its subversive origins its evolution in literature & science & its influence on our understanding of time itself Gleick's story begins at the turn of the twentieth century with the young H G Wells writing & rewriting the fantastic tale that became his first book an international sensation The Time Machine A host of forces were converging to transmute the human understanding of time some philosophical & some technological
- the electric telegraph the steam railroad the discovery of buried civilisations & the perfection of clocks Gleick tracks the evolution of time travel as an idea in the culture
- from Marcel Proust to Doctor Who from Woody Allen to Jorge Luis Borges He explores the inevitable looping paradoxes & examines the porous boundary between pulp fiction & modern physics Finally he delves into a temporal shift that is unsettling our own moment the instantaneous wired world with its all-consuming present & vanishing future