DOCTOR COPERNICUS

'Banville is superb ...there are not many historical novels of which it can be s
aid that they illuminate both the time that forms their subject matter and the t
ime in which they are read: Doctor Copernicus is among the very best of them' -
"The Economist". The work of Nicholas Koppernigk, better known as Copernicus, sh
attered the medieval view of the universe and led to the formulation of the imag
e of the solar system we know today. Here his life is powerfully evoked in a nov
el that offers a vivid portrait of a man of painful reticence, haunted by a male
volent brother and baffled by the conspiracies that rage around him and his idea
s while he searches for the secret of life.