“An extraordinary exploration of dreams, consciousness, science and the future.”
“Exceptionally poised and elegant…. Murmur is a poignant meditation on the irrepressible complexity of human nature and sexuality, and a powerful indictment of the cowardice and groupthink that sustain state-sanctioned barbarism. It also poses timely questions about the digital world Turing’s pioneering work helped bring about.”
“Eaves has achieved one of the pinnacles of novelistic endeavour: he has given deep thought to human experience, and in doing so brought to life the ‘self-conscious wonder’ of thought itself.”
“There is science, there is art and there is Jungian symbolism.… For all its challenges, Murmur is also beautiful [in its] willingness to embrace opacity, its portrayal of the labyrinthine paths along which thought proceeds, and its exhilarating ambition to test Alec’s belief that ‘[a] mind can’t prove or step outside itself’ by inviting us to step out from ours, and into his.”
“No one can be sure of what went through Turing’s mind in the final months before his suicide, but Murmur—a weaving, witty text packed with insight about the future—feels entirely believable.”
“Ambitiously and brilliantly illustrates the relationships between fiction, consciousness, and artificial intelligence.”
“[Murmur] has achieved the holy grail of modern prose: conveying consciousness.… An exquisitely crafted novel.”
“Presented through journal entries, letters and a feverish dream chronicle, Murmur offers a poetically charged reading experience that is at once scientifically astute, philosophically engaging, and emotionally disturbing.… A bold, imaginative accomplishment.”
“It takes a certain literary brilliance to convey the conscious and unconscious mind of one of history’s greatest intellects. Will Eaves eloquently probes the boundaries between dreams, perception, and reality, prompting the reader to examine the recesses of their own labyrinthine psyche. A seamless dialogue between art and science, and fact and fiction.”
“Murmur is a profound meditation on what machine consciousness might mean, the implications of AI, where it will all lead. It’s one of the big stories of our time, though no one else has treated it with such depth and originality.”
“Tender and funny, Murmur takes the tragic story of Turing’s life and punishment and ingeniously transforms it into something glittering, subversive, and even triumphant. Eaves has built a magnificently challenging memorial to one of the great twentieth-century martyrs.”
“Murmur is Eaves’ best work to date, full of grace and kindness and big ideas. His prose attains a level of poetry that is simply wonderful.”
Copyright
First published in the United States in 2019
by Bellevue Literary Press, New York
Originally published in Britain in 2018 by CB Editions
For information, contact:
Bellevue Literary Press
90 Broad Street
Suite 2100
New York, NY 10004
© 2018 by Will Eaves
This is a work of fiction. Characters, organizations, events, and places (even those that are actual) are either products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Eaves, Will, 1967- author.
Title: Murmur / Will Eaves.
Description: First edition. | New York, NY : Bellevue Literary Press, 2019.
Identifiers: LCCN 2018047605 (print) | LCCN 2018049911 (ebook) | ISBN 9781942658658 (ebook) | ISBN 9781942658641 (paperback)
Classification: LCC PR6105.A94 (ebook) | LCC PR6105.A94 M87 2019 (print) | DDC 823/.92--dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2018047605
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopy, recording, or any information storage and retrieval system now known or to be invented, without permission in writing from the publisher, except by a reviewer who wishes to quote brief passages in connection with a print, online, or broadcast review.
Bellevue Literary Press would like to thank all its generous donors—individuals and foundations—for their support.
This publication is made possible by the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of Governor Andrew M. Cuomo and the New York State Legislature.
This project is supported in part by an award from the National Endowment for the Arts.
Book design adaptation and composition by Mulberry Tree Press, Inc.
Bellevue Literary Press is committed to ecological stewardship in our book production practices, working to reduce our impact on the natural environment.
This book is printed on acid-free paper.
Manufactured in the United States of America
First Edition
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paperback ISBN: 978-1-942658-64-1
ebook ISBN: 978-1-942658-65-8