ORION SAINT / PHILOSOPHICAL FICTIONView the back cover
Philosophical fiction
The Department of Unsolvable Equations
The universe, love, and life, subject to correction.
Niko Bell can repair a cupboard, paint a wall, and persuade a stubborn tap to close. He is less certain what to do with the official letter that gives his life a score of 43.7.
A commission at a threatened observatory brings him into a room of teachers, neighbours, and people who ask better questions than the council’s forms. Meanwhile, his daughter Mina has accepted a job in Lisbon without asking his permission.
When Niko finds a mistake in the numbers, he becomes the man who can save the room. Then he finds another. A warm, sharply comic story about honesty, belonging, and the geometry of joy.
Rewritten edition · 28 chapters · 116 pages
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Read an excerpt ↓FROM THE BOOK
Chapter 1 · A Number Where a Person Should Be
The letter arrived on a Monday, which Niko considered an unnecessarily coordinated attack.
It had a window through which his name appeared beneath the number 43.7. He assumed this was an outstanding balance until he opened the envelope and discovered that it was his contribution to civic life.
The Department of Surrender had begun a pilot programme called Common Measure. Selected residents would receive a provisional Living Value Score, calculated from participation, independence, economic activity, and demonstrated social connection. The score was intended to help allocate community resources fairly.
Below this explanation, in smaller print, it said that no judgment of personal worth was implied.
Niko read the number again. It was surprising how much judgment could be accomplished without implying any.
He put the letter beside a plate and made toast. The toaster had to be held down with the handle of a wooden spoon. He had meant to replace it for two years, but it remained possible to argue that it worked.
There was no scale on the letter. Forty-three point seven out of what? He turned it over. The reverse explained how to request the document in a larger font.
A LETTER WHEN THERE IS A STORY
Keep a place
on the shelf.
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