Media Center: 'The Chemistry of Tears' by Peter Carey

WHO:
Peter Carey

WHAT:
THE CHEMISTRY OF TEARS, a novel

WHEN:
Published by Knopf May 11, 2012

WHERE: AUTHOR TOUR: Boston, New York, Portland, San Francisco, Seattle, Washington DC

WHY:
“Gripping.
“Peter Carey is a bewitching storyteller preternaturally attuned to our endless struggles over love and eccentric obsessions.
“In this fairy tale within a fairy tale rife with historical and literary allusions, Catherine, a horologist on the staff of a London museum, is mad with grief after the sudden death of her married lover and struggles to focus on the new restoration project her sympathetic boss hopes will comfort her.
“She becomes enthralled by the notebooks of Henry Brandling, a wealthy nineteenth-century Englishman who went to Germany to commission an automaton for his ailing son, only to come under the spell of Sumper, a hulking, vehement inventor who may be a thief, brute, genius, or all three. As Catherine unfolds Henry’s mysterious ordeal, she meticulously reconstructs Sumper’s elaborate, mechanized wonder…
“Set during the Gulf oil crisis and reminiscent of The Invention of Hugo Cabret in its linkage of a rescued automaton and loneliness, Carey’s gripping fable raises provocative questions about life, death, and memory and our power to create and destroy.”
—Donna Seaman, BOOKLIST

“A powerful novel on the frailty of the human body and the emotional life we imbue in machines.”
—PUBLISHERS WEEKLY,
in a starred review

Media Resources:
About the book | Author bio | Read an excerpt | Download the jacket

Publicity:
Erinn Hartman | 212-572-2345 | ehartman@randomhouse.com