Moscow 1985: The international Programming Spartakad keeps the Soviet elite in suspense. Aspiring mathematicians compete with each other with future technologies, that seem only one keypress away. However, the Cuban national team disappears without a trace right before the opening. Their translator Mireya goes looking for them in the foreign capital, that buzzes and flickers almost electrically. Architects and agents, rhyming machines and even Stalin's living shadow play a role in this wild and at times mystical story: A colourful mosaic of the Soviet Union just a blink before the world's interconnection. A novel as unpredictable as history itself.
Awards
Nominated for the Leipzig Book Fair Prize 2018
Nominated for the German Book Prize 2018
Sample translation
English sample available
Matthias Senkel was born 1977. His first novel Frühe Vögel was awarded with the Rauriser Literary Prize and the Uwe Johnson Prize.
By the same author(s)
"One of the wittiest, most imaginative, and high-spirited experiments in contemporary German literature."
- Lothar Müller, Süddeutsche Zeitung
"'Dark Numbers' is a book of binary codes and artificial intelligence, but what is most striking is the natural intelligence behind it: the author himself."
- Paul Jandl, Neue Zürcher Zeitung
"'Dark Numbers', this is a terrific imaginative book and it is also, in its use of socio and dialects, in its serving of literary genres and its references to James Joyce, Robert Musil or Russian literature, an impressive piece of literature."
- Paula Pfoser, ORF
