"A novelist whose concern with how we should live and what we can believe puts him in the tradition of Jean-Paul Sartre and Albert Camus" (The Scotsman).

Overpopulation, nuclear war, fascism, contemporary capitalism, and climate crisis all play roles in this epistolary novel in which a young philosopher grapples with the life of Werner Heisenberg, the Nobel Prize-winning German physicist.
As he examines the dark historical events of the early twentieth century alongside the luminous elegance of Heisenberg's theoretical work, the narrator provides an intimate account of his own youthful struggles and desperate attempts to make sense of a fractured, globalized world. How could a man with such a beautiful mind have participated in such atrocities? Jérôme Ferrari offers a compelling, unflinching vision of the failings of European culture, a hypnotic glimpse into the mysteries of the physical world, and a deeply personal historical interrogation.

A young philosopher, fascinated by Heisenberg and his uncertainty principle, grapples with a world scarred by the legacies of war.

In this lyrical novel, a young, disenchanted philosopher reckons with the evil at work in the contemporary world by reimagining the life of Werner Heisenberg, the Nobel Prize-winning German physicist infamous for two reasons: revolutionizing quantum mechanics with his "uncertainty principle" at the tender age of twenty-three, and participating in Nazi efforts to build a nuclear bomb.

The story of the inevitably compromised meeting between a man's soul and the mysterious beauty of the world, The Principle plumbs the depths of an intellectual giant whose sublime insights into nature did not preclude his cooperation, however ambiguous, with the darkest forces of his day. In an unflinching look at the failings of European culture, Je¿röme Ferrari offers a compelling vision of a fractured, globalized world whose tragedies are rooted in those of the twentieth century.

The Principle is a poetic glimpse into the mysteries of the physical world and the minds of those who seek to uncover them.

Praise for The Principle

"A work of endless density and power...hauntingly beautiful."
—Le Monde

“Indeed, what is ultimately at stake in quantum theories is a question of language and the limitations of language in describing reality. Hence, an ideal topic to bridge science and literature, which Ferrari does masterfully in The Principle. [...] I was impressed by the beauty and depth of this short, dense book on the ultimate human choice.”
—European Literature Network

“The epistolary effect of a narrative addressed to its subject is daring and uncommon, but in this case it works, part accusation, part plea, part quest and inquest. An elegant, cheerless meditation on how even the brightest people can find it in themselves to accommodate evil on the way to annihilation.”
—Kirkus Reviews

"Ferrari beautifully portrays the destabilizing way new theories disrupt and disorient what's come before."
—Public Books


"The extreme beauty of Ferrari's language serves well his poetic expressive intelligence, allowing him to approach the unknown and hostile continent of quantum physics. A fascinating dive into a novelistic and entirely unexpected experience."
—L'Orient Littéraire

"The power of Jérôme Ferrari's writing resides in its precision, its delicate lyricism, which is evident from the very first sentences, and its metaphysical questioning. The reader will find this combination intoxicating."
—La Cause Littéraire

"With a construction as precise as that of a theorem, The Principle moves beyond the single evocation of a life and its murky areas to better interrogate the basis of all truth."
—L'Express

"A sparse, elegant story."
—Historical Novels Review

Praise for Jérôme Ferrari
 
“A novelist whose concern with how we should live and what we can believe
puts him in the tradition of Jean-Paul Sartre and Albert Camus.”
—Allan Massie, The Scotsman
 
“Astute, cunning, brilliant...[Sermon of the Fall of Rome] is an earthy, philosophical tract drawing on history and human experience.”
—The Irish Times