Capsoul

Alex Krasnov

If you like numerology, this is the book for you.

A mixture of science, science fiction, fantasy, and mysticism based on numerology, “Capsoul” is the story of a group of emigres from the former USSR to the US and Canada who design a project to create a kind of “immortality machine” that can preserve a soul using mirrors. Scenes of their experiments are intercut with flashbacks to their childhoods and early adulthoods in the USSR and US, as well as historical sections about the 17th-century Patriarch Nikon.

Mainstream Western readers may find this book a bit odd, as it takes numerology, which in the West is a fringe concept, very seriously, using it as the base for its semi-scientific theories about the numbers 1, 666, and 1666. For those who have read “War and Peace,” this may sound reminiscent of Pierre Bezuhov’s obsession with numerology and the number 666, and those readers would be correct. For those who enjoy thinking about that kind of thing, “Capsoul” has all kinds of numerical coincidences to chew over and marvel out. Others may enjoy the historical scenes of the early Romanov dynasty and the late USSR, which are written with a naturalness that Western writers would struggle to match. Overall, a bit of an odd book, but delightfully offbeat and outside of the mainstream of both literary and genre fiction.

Buy link: Amazon