Indie Press Reading Group

The monthly Indie Press Reading Group series aims to highlight brilliant novelists, essayists and poets from some of the most prolific UK independent publishers. In May, we'll talk about Solvej Balle's 2025 International Booker Prize shortlisted On the Calculation of Volume I, published by Faber & Faber.

'Absolutely, absolutely incredible.' Karl Ove Knausgård
'A total explosion.' Nicole Krauss
'Unforgettable.' Hernan Díaz
'Breathtaking.' Chetna Maroo
'Brilliant.' Jon McGregor
'Absolutely marvellous.' Lauren Groff

The first volume of the poetic, page-turning masterpiece about one woman's fall through the cracks of time.

Every morning, Tara Selter wakes up to the 18th of November. She no longer expects to wake up to the 19th of November, and she no longer remembers the 17th of November as if it were yesterday.

She comes to know the shape of the day like the back of her hand - the grey morning light in her Paris hotel; the moment a blackbird breaks into song; her husband's surprise at seeing her return home unannounced. But for everyone around her, this day is lived for the first and only time. They do not remember the other 18ths of November, and they do not believe her when she tries to explain.

As Tara approaches her 365th 18th of November, she can't shake the feeling that somewhere underneath the surface of this day, there's a way to escape.

Solvej Balle made her debut in 1986 with Lyrefugl (Lyrebird). She wrote 1990s' most acclaimed works of Danish literature, Ifolge loven (1993) (According to the Law: Four Accounts of Mankind, translated by Barbara Haveland). On Calculation of Volume is Solvej Balle's return to literary stardom after nearly 30 years.