The Geometer Lobachevsky Adrian Duncan | Lilliput Press

In The Geometer Lobachevsky, award-winning author Adrian Duncan follows his interest in internationality and materiality, leading to unforeseeable connections between people and places. Set in the early 1950s, the story follows Soviet geometer (mathematician) Nikolai Lobachevsky who is a Glav Torf representative aiding Bord na Móna with a land survey. In Ireland on this state visit, he receives a letter from the MGB ordering him back to Leningrad for ‘a special appointment’. Immediately suspicious, he goes into hiding on a small island in the Shannon Estuary where he waits in the hope of some day returning safely home.

Adrian Duncan has gone from strength to strength in his writing career since first publishing with Lilliput in 2019. He won the inaugural John McGahern Annual Book Prize 2020 for Love Notes from a German Building Site (2019) and was shortlisted for the Dalkey Novel of the Year Award 2020 for the same. His profile continues to grow with his recent shortlisting for the Kerry Group Novel of the Year Award 2021 for his second novel, A Sabbatical in Leipzig (2020). His recent collection of short stories, Midfield Dynamo (2021), has also been longlisted for the Edge Hill Short Story Prize. Now, Duncan presents his fourth book in the same number of years – The Geometer Lobachevsky.