Paromjit's Reviews > Dark Matter

Dark Matter is a book that thrills, horrifies and asks deep philosophical questions. It begins with Jason, a physics professor surrounded by his beloved wife, Daniela, and his teenage son, Charlie, cooking supper. He steps out to meet with a long time friend, Ryan, who has been awarded a prestigious prize. On his way home, Jason is abducted, after which life as he knew it shatters.

I found myself seeing the book through the lens of the band, The Talking Heads...their album titles, song titles and lyrics....this is not my beautiful wife.....Stop Making Sense......Psycho Killer... and so on. Scientific thinking comes into play, the quantum world, string theory and game theory. The mathematics of identity. If this novel was art, it would be a fusion of Surrealism, Cubism and Abstract Art. It is a rumination of all that a person could be, the many paths that could have been followed and decisions taken.

Distilled to its essence, this is a story of one man's love for his family. What will he do to get back? Home is the love of Daniela and Charlie. What has to happen to ensure he has a future with them? They are the stars in his sky, they are everything. Wonderful novel. Highly recommended and brilliant read. Thanks to PanMacmillan for an ARC.