Sumit Paul-Choudhury
Hearts of Darkness
Gravity's Engines: The Other Side of Black Holes
By Caleb Scharf
Allen Lane/The Penguin Press 252pp £20 order from our bookshop
The existence of black holes is one of the universe’s most perplexing truths. The mathematical models which describe these enigmatic celestial omnivores suggest that they are naturally, almost inevitably produced when very large stars collapse at the end of their active lives. But the models also suggest that they are places where space and time become grossly distorted, so that the heart of every hole is a singularity – the physical realisation of what astrobiologist Caleb Scharf describes in Gravity’s Engines as ‘a point at which an algebraic expression provides no meaningful answer, like calculating the value of one divided by zero’.
Sign Up to our newsletter
Receive free articles, highlights from the archive, news, details of prizes, and much more.@Lit_Review
Follow Literary Review on Twitter
'This book takes in a lot of territory, all solidly researched and footnoted. But dry? Fuhgeddaboutit.'
Patricia T O'Conner on E J White's 'You Talkin' To Me? The Unruly History of New York English'.
https://literaryreview.co.uk/tawk-of-the-town
'The identification of a mighty force sparkling intermittently seems to me to constitute the finest and most consistent poetic achievement of Goudie’s book.'
Candia McWilliam on @lachlangoudie's 'The Story of Scottish Art'.
https://literaryreview.co.uk/all-that-glisters
Though 'the hotel had a reputation as the area’s best, its staff were not used to looking after world leaders, so the arrival of Cuba’s new strongman, Fidel Castro, came as something of a shock.'
@dcsandbrook on @simonhallwriter's 'Ten Days in Harlem'.
http://ow.ly/I63850Bvs10