{"product_id":"the-maniac-by-benjamin-labatut","title":"'The Maniac' by Benjamin Labatut","description":"\u003ch4 data-start=\"35\" data-end=\"583\"\u003eBenjamin Labatut’s \u003cem data-start=\"54\" data-end=\"66\"\u003eThe MANIAC\u003c\/em\u003e is a feverish, documentary-haunted novel about intelligence, madness, war, mathematics, machines, and the people who helped build them.\u003c\/h4\u003e\n\u003cp data-start=\"35\" data-end=\"583\"\u003eAt its centre is John von Neumann: prodigy, polymath, architect of game theory, computing, nuclear strategy, and the cold, glittering logic behind the modern technological order. Around him gather physicists, generals, mathematicians, ghosts of the atomic age, and the long shadow of systems too powerful for their makers to fully understand.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp data-start=\"585\" data-end=\"1164\"\u003eLike \u003cem data-start=\"590\" data-end=\"629\"\u003eWhen We Cease to Understand the World\u003c\/em\u003e, this is fiction moving through real history with a scalpel and a migraine. Labatut writes about genius as contamination: the way abstraction becomes bomb, computer, market, military doctrine, artificial intelligence, and then, eventually, a planetary mood. \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp data-start=\"1166\" data-end=\"1399\"\u003eA strong one for readers of W. G. Sebald, Tom McCarthy, Roberto Bolaño’s darker essayistic modes, history of science, AI anxiety, nuclear dread, philosophical fiction, and books where the footnotes feel like they might start setting alight.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp data-start=\"1401\" data-end=\"1584\"\u003e\u003cstrong\u003ePushkin Press paperback edition, first published in 2023, with full number line. Good second-hand condition, with light handling and shelfwear.\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"bower studio","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":45685228896339,"sku":null,"price":18.0,"currency_code":"AUD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0689\/0268\/2707\/files\/thebowerbooker_44.png?v=1781075843","url":"https:\/\/bowerbooks.com\/products\/the-maniac-by-benjamin-labatut","provider":"bower books","version":"1.0","type":"link"}