<p><p>this Mesmerizing Debut, Uncannily Uniting The Trials Of A Postmodern Upbringing With A Murder Mystery, Heralds The Arrival Of A Vibrant New Voice In Literary Fiction.</p><h3>the New York Times - Janet Maslin</h3><p>marisha Pessl's <i>special Topics In Calamity Physics</i> Is The Most Flashily Erudite First Novel Since Jonathan Safran Foer's <i>everything Is Illuminated</i>. With Its Pirouettes And Cartwheels, Its Tireless Annotations And Digressions, It Has A Similar Whiz-kid Eagerness To Wow The Reader.</p>