The Discovery of Slowness

Framing the life of the 19-century explorer Sir John Franklin (1786–1847), this novel explores not only the adventures of his career, but also enters a world where the quality of life is considered to be in slow motion, where ordinary experience becomes wholly new and unexpected. A phlegmatic, deliberate, strange child, John's slowness is extraordinary, allowing him to hold a rope taut for hours, his arm upright, and gather superhuman strength. He joins the Navy at age 14 and from that point on the volatile but profoundly changeless sea becomes his home. As he travels the world, brutal struggles against Arctic ice, enveloping seas off the coast of Australia, and the deadly ships of Napoleon's navy are etched upon the canvas of the contemplative and methodically slow thoughts of John Franklin, whose brain sends no signals to speak or move until it has fully conceptualized a situation. This remarkable and superbly translated novel derives from the life of the real 19th-century explorer John Franklin, who bestowed the name "District of Franklin" to the northern archipelago above Canada.