The Procedure - by Harry Mulisch (Paperback)

Book Synopsis

Internationally renowned novelist Harry Mulisch's The Procedure is a haunting and fascinating novel about two men who try to create life but fail. In the late sixteenth century, Rabbi Jehudah Löw, in order to guarantee the safety of the Jews in Prague, creates a golem by following a procedure outlined in a third-century cabalist text. Four hundred years later, Victor Werker, a Dutch biologist mourning the loss of his stillborn daughter, causes an international uproar when he creates a complex organic clay crystal that can reproduce and has a metabolism. But his unsettling discovery takes its toll as his inner and outer demons pursue him around the world, from California to Venice, Cairo, and Jerusalem.

Review Quotes

"Sharply imagined, vivid, and often funny." --The Washington Post

"Immensely challenging, eminently readable and astonishingly good. Mulisch is a first-rate writer who grabs your attention ... a dazzlingly original highbrow read" --Mail on Sunday

"A deftly created tale [that] tackles nothing less than the mystery of life itself. What gives this novel its fascinating brilliance is Mulisch's skill as a storyteller" --The Times (London)

"Entertaining, moving and invigorating" --Sunday Times (London)

"Wonderful observations, much humour, highly ambitious ... the wild daring of a very exciting mind" --Independent

About the Author

Harry Mulisch is author of the international bestsellers The Assault, The Discovery of Heaven, and The Procedure, as well as other novels, short stories, essays, poetry, plays, and philosophical works.