Books › The Teleportation Accident
The Teleportation Accident
486 pages
A darkly comedic, genre-bending romp through history, blending theatrical obsession, scientific hubris, and L.A. noir.
What it feels like
Reading this book feels like being swept into a frenetic, genre-defying fever dream where historical fiction collides with L.A. noir and absurd science fiction. The narrative moves at a brisk, chaotic pace, mirroring its protagonist's desperate, sex-driven flight from the declining Weimar Republic to the sun-drenched, murder-laced campuses of California. The tone is sharply satirical and irreverent, treating both the looming shadows of history and the hubris of scientific invention with a wry, cynical detachment. It is a darkly comedic atmosphere, steeped in the eccentricities of exiled artists and the bizarre legacy of a seventeenth-century stage illusion. This is a perfect match for readers who delight in clever, boundary-pushing mash-ups that prioritize eccentric character dynamics and absurd historical coincidences over traditional, straightforward storytelling.
- Mood
- frenetic
- noir-tinged
- eccentric
- darkly comedic
- Tone
- satirical
- wry
- irreverent
- cynical
- absurdist
- Pace
- brisk
- Themes
- obsessive pursuit · artistic ambition · exile and displacement · scientific hubris · the absurdity of history
- The writing
- Sharp, satirical, and genre-bending, blending historical detail with noir and sci-fi tropes.
- The arc
- Moves from jaded, sex-driven frustration in a collapsing society to a chaotic, globe-trotting entanglement in murder and scientific absurdity.
- Who it's for
- Readers who love genre-defying historical satire filled with eccentric characters, dark humor, and absurd historical coincidences.
Content notes
- murder
- sexual themes
- historical displacement
About the book
"In the declining Weimar Republic, Egon Loeser works as a stage designer for New Expressionist theatre. His hero is the greatest set designer of the seventeenth century, Adriano Lavicini, who devised the so-called Teleportation Device for the whisking of actors from one scene to another-a miracle, until the thing malfunctioned, causing numerous deaths and perhaps summoning the devil himself. Apolitical in a dangerous time, sex-driven in a dry spell, Loeser leaves the tired scene in Berlin in pursuit of the lubricious Adele Hitler (no relation), who couldn't care less about him. Heading first to Paris and then to Los Angeles, he finds his entire tired Berlin social circle reconstituted in exile, under the patronage of a crime writer and his possibly philandering wife. He also finds himself uncomfortably close to a string of murders at Caltech, where a physicist, assisted by Adele herself, is trying to develop a device for honest-to-God teleportation.Following his breathtaking debut, Boxer, Beetle, Ned Beauman ups the ante, creating in The Teleportation Accident a marvelous mash-up of historical fiction, L.A. noir, science fiction, and satire, and proving himself a star on the rise"-- Provided by publisher.
Description from Open Library.
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