Every Arc Bends Its Radian: A Novel

by Sergio De La Pava

Overview

From PEN Award–winning author Sergio de la Pava comes a “roiling, noirish, existential explosion of a novel” (Vanity Fair) about a private investigator who escapes New York City for Colombia, where he finds himself entangled in the mystery of a young woman’s disappearance—which may be connected to one of the world’s most ruthless criminal organizations.

Riv—poet, philosopher, private eye—arrives in Cali, Colombia, hoping to find reprieve. Running away from an unspeakable event surrounding his ex Jane, Riv accidentally connects with his cousin Mauro and family friend Carlotta, who asks him to find her daughter Angelica Alfa-Ochoa. No sooner is Riv on the trail when it becomes clear that not only are the cops not looking for Angelica, but they are actively preventing him from finding her. This could be a good thing because the police are clearly in the pocket of one Exeter Mondragon, a name best never uttered in public if one wants to stay alive.

But Riv is not one to leave things incomplete. When his investigation leads him straight into the heart of Mondragon’s criminal empire, he is forced to face unimaginable horrors and plunge into the deepest and most perplexing conundrums of the human condition.

Lighting fast on the page and steeped in the cultural history of Colombia, Every Arc Bends Its Radian is a novel only Sergio de la Pava could write. As incredibly funny as it is ridiculously smart, it poses large existential questions while keeping you laughing. A novel idea about the biggest idea of them all—what in God’s name are we even put on earth for—this book is a singular philosophical exploration of the human psyche.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781668056707
Publisher:	Simon & Schuster
Publication date:	11/12/2024
Pages:	288
Product dimensions:	5.60(w) x 8.40(h) x 1.40(d)

About the Author

Sergio de la Pava is the author of Every Arc Bends Its Radian, Lost Empress, Personae, and A Naked Singularity, for which he won the 2013 PEN/Robert W. Bingham Award for debut fiction. He lives in New York City.

Editorial Reviews

De La Pava’s commitment to ideas — their creation and their interrogation — is so fervid that it lights up his prose. Riv wants to take us somewhere new, as intellectual strivers always want to, whether their stories are bound within a philosophical argument, a sweeping historical epic or a good old-fashioned detective yarn. It’s invigorating to be dropped in the middle of such an effort and to feel that whatever we might guess is coming next, the truth is likely to be much, much stranger.”—Dwyer Murphy, The New York Times

"This is the only book you’ll read this year (or any year?) in which a meeting with a supervillain leads to a five-page exegesis on the life and works of the third-century Saint Cyprian, 'the Magician.' This is a happy thing."—Robert Rubsam, Washington Post

"Between unctuous descriptions of Cali and its region, hilarious send-ups of noir tropes and more than a dash of speculative horror, de la Pava sticks a highly unlikely landing."—LA Times

"Poignant, philosophical, and very funny, Sergio de la Pava’s latest novel is a new kind of detective story."—Our Culture Mag

"A private eye leaves NYC for Colombia, starts searching for a missing woman who may be linked (indeed, is linked) to the most dangerous man in the country, veers off into fantastical realms when not pondering theoretical physics and ends up exploding your head in the best possible way."—Parade

"[A] roiling, noirish, existential explosion of a novel."—Vanity Fair

"Since his 2012 debut, A Naked Singularity, de la Pava has proven his ability to weave disparate ideas and genres together into something uniquely manic and reflective of the current state of the world."—AV Club

"[This] detective story holds a hypnotizing power all its own."—Publishers Weekly

"Fantastical, spectacular, riveting...fiercely intense and consuming. And existential detective thriller from an engaging writer and thinker."—Library Journal (starred review)

"A mind-bending detective story...[it] reads a bit like if Raymond Chandler and Jules Verne dropped acid together and started contemplating the nature of evil and the future of artificial intelligence. Summarizing any de la Pava novel—where formal hijinks abound and digressions range from The Honeymooners to theoretical physics—in one sentence feels almost obscenely reductive, but even those bare-bones descriptions make clear that this is not a writer in search of approval."—Publishers Weekly

"A genre-hopping sojourn...Put on your seat belt for this weirdly imaginative yarn and its endless hairpin twists and turns."—Kirkus Reviews

"This existential detective novel follows Riv, a philosophical private eye, from personal tragedy in New York to serious trouble in Colombia. On the trail of a missing girl, he runs up against crooked cops, an all-powerful crime lord, and, of course, his own past."—Boston Globe, "20 Books We Can't Wait to Read this Fall"

"With singular humor and brilliance, Every Arc Bends Its Radian lures us in with an ostensible detective story only to show us that all searches inevitably turn deeply inward. De la Pava’s newest offering is a resounding argument for care as resistance—care as our highest form of creativity and care as the ultimate proof of our humanity. Over and over again, I held my breath against the marvel of the novel’s plot, its philosophical rigor, it growing menace and suspense; and yet the book’s superb wit, coupled with its sincere wisdom, reminded me just as often to release that breath—that my breath is only a tiny hum that will someday rejoin the unknowable song of the universe. A searing examination of how power and corruption can warp our minds and hearts, Every Arc Bends Its Radian provides us not a way through, but instead, something more realistic and necessary: a way to hold on to our humanity in the face of perpetual and increasing challenges to it."—Jennine Capó Crucet, author of Say Hello to My Little Friend

“Sergio De La Pava is one of America’s most inventive writers, and his new novel bends minds and genres in equal measure. Starting life as a hard-boiled detective story, it cuts a heady and frequently funny path through travelogue, horror, and sci-fi. Like some postmodern Poe bringing news of the maelstrom, Every Arc Bends Its Radian offers a wild ride to ‘the innermost heart of reality.’”—Garth Risk Hallberg, New York Times bestselling author of City on Fire and The Second Coming

"Every Arc Bends its Radian poses unanswerable questions, pushes at the outer skin of reality, and expands the idea of a novel. Bellicose and tender, delirious and lucid, what I just read is a masterpiece. Sergio De La Pava is one of the finest writers alive."—Zain Khalid, author of Brother Alive

“A philosophical parable about our dumpster present in the key of Pynchon out for a night on the town with Dostoevsky and Mary Shelley, Every Arc Bends Its Radian is unhinged in the best possible way. A frisky, horrifying, witty, enraged, unpredictable, and fascinating exploration into how the human is ending and the other thing birthing all around us. Plus its second half will make your brain explode at least once on every page.”—Lance Olsen, author of Absolute Away

From the Publisher

2024-08-03
A genre-hopping sojourn in a Colombia both real and improbable.

A New Jersey native of Colombian descent, de la Pava opens with a touch of the roman à clef: “The airport in Cali. It’s been an era since I’ve been, so the sight of so many authorized machine guns unsettles at first.” The story quickly morphs as the protagonist, Riv del Río, is called on to exercise his skills as a private eye. He’s an existential one at that, de la Pava seasoning his now-noirish broth with dashes of Roberto Bolaño and Arturo Pérez-Reverte: As Riv puts it, searching for documentation on the missing young woman he’s been hired to find, “Mysteriously evanesce into invisibility one day and a single sheet of paper will replace you. And eventually no one will read it unless someone like me comes in and asks.” That young woman is beautiful and brilliant, so much so that she scorns her MIT teachers with a taunting note on her thesis proposal: “I don’t expect you to understand.” Riv traces Angelica’s disappearance to a preternaturally evil crime lord who, boasting of having killed God, is worshipped by minions and fed grapes by “barely clad women.” Exeter Mondragon may be Satan in a caftan, but he’s no match for Angelica, who turns up in a deus ex machina moment that recalls the bizarre science fiction conclusion of the film version of Peter Høeg’s novelSmilla’s Sense of Snow. Angelica, who’s cooked up a program she calls Supra Hominin Cognition—don’t ask—harbors plans that include the mass extermination of humankind, about which Riv muses, once the dust has settled, “Sure, she wanted to eradicate us all, but not like I’m perfect.”

Put on your seat belt for this weirdly imaginative yarn and its endless hairpin twists and turns.

Kirkus Reviews