The Chemistry of Tears by Peter Carey

The Chemistry of Tears is fresh from the pen of Peter Carey, the guy who did more for Ned Kelly than Ned ever did for himself. This time Carey does the same for a clock, although inasmuch as Ned wasn’t just a man, this clock isn’t just a clock. Confused? Get used to it: mystery is the centrifugal force of this story. Through a disarming narrative, two stories ultimately tell each other: the first, set in the romantic black forests of Germany, (post-Enlightenment, but perhaps macro-societal shifts take a bit longer to get to the continent’s small villages) is full of fairytale collectors and cuckoo clock makers who question the natural and present the supernatural more than the ‘clockwork universe theory’ ever did. The second is set in contemporary London where, in lieu of losing a lover who was never completely hers, a horologist gains an extraordinary Automaton to piece back together. From its creation in 19^th century Germany to its reconstruction in the 21^st century London, the fantastic piece of clockwork is built in love’s salvage yard: from a man who tries to excite a cure within his consumptive son to a woman who tries to salvage herself from a similarly consumptive grief. [Renee Rowland]