num_pages: 514
description: 'It had been almost a year since I'd found Hannah dead, and I thought I'd managed to erase all traces of that night within myself. I was wrong.' "Special Topics in Calamity Physics" is a mesmerizing debut. As teenager Blue van Meer tells her story we are hurled into a dizzying world of murder and butterflies, womanizing and wandering, American McCulture, the Western Canon, political radicalism and juvenile crushisms. Structured around a syllabus for a Great Works of Literature class (with hand-drawn Visual Aids), Blue's wickedly funny yet poignant tale reveals how the imagination finds meaning in the most bewildering times, the ways people of all ages strive for connection, and how the darkest of secrets can set us free.
language: English
title: Special Topics in Calamity Physics
titlecomplete: Special Topics in Calamity Physics
characters: Howie Valerio, Norvel Owen, Ms. Simpson, Roy Withers, Lonny Felix, Jefferson Whitestone, Smoke Wyannoch Harvey, Eugenia Sturds, Pa Havermeyer, Alfred Johnson, Blue van Meer, Victor Moats, Natasha Alicia Bridges van Meer, Arnie Sanderson, Ms. Gershon, Lee Sanjay Song, Fayonette Harper, Frank Fletcher, Andreo Verduga, Wilson Gnut, Violet May Martinez
genres: Mystery, Fiction, Contemporary, Coming Of Age, Mystery Thriller, Young Adult, Literary Fiction, Adult, Literature, Novels
ratings_count: 46591
places: Stockton, North Carolina
awards: awardedAt: 1136102400000
name: John Sargent, Sr. First Novel Prize, awardedAt: 1136102400000
name: The Center for Fiction, awardedAt: 1167638400000
name: PEN/Hemingway Award for Debut Novel
publisher: Penguin