Il aime trop ses personnages pour s'en moquer, alors il s'amuse de leurs travers, et de leur surdité à un monde qu'ils ne cessent d'ausculter.' - Astrid Éliard, Le Figaro

'Ce jeune écrivain, dont on dit qu'il est un prodige, a le toupet de nous faire rire avec un sujet on ne peut plus sérieux et érudit.

'Eschewing the oppressive morality that defines modern German literature (see: Grass, Gunther and Böll, Heinrich), the 31-year-old author forges a sly prose style shaped by the fire of human nature and the anvil of logic: It's magic realism honed to a distinctly Teutonic level of precision.' - Wook Kim, Entertainment Weekly.

Still, since this is a German novel worthy of the name, we are also treated to meditations on themes like aging and what it means to be German.' - Tess Lewis, Bookforum

'Kehlmann delivers a charming historical romp complete with ghosts, cannibals, winged dogs, prostitutes, and some hapless political intrigue, none of which lures Gauss or Humboldt away for long from their shared passion: science.

As a result, his novel is a meditation on creativity, not just in science but in any human endeavor.' - Ken Alder, American Scientist However, I am delighted to report that Kehlmann maintains a scrupulous imaginative fidelity to his characters and their era. (.) As a card-carrying historian of science, I am duty-bound to note that the book includes numerous minor deviations from the historical record.

'Around this odd couple Kehlmann has constructed a marvelous novel, a wry meditation on the idea that because there is more than one way to measure the world, there is more than one way to create it anew.

'Hasty translation is a frequent problem with publishers anxious to catch a best-selling wave from elsewhere but fortunately not even clunky sentences can spoil the delight of young Kehlmann's enormously enjoyable fifth novel.' - Judith Armstrong, The Age.Measuring the World was made into a film, directed by Detlev Buck, in 2012Ī- : appealing intellectual-historical novel.

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Measuring the world by daniel kehlmann