Description: "A New York City chambermaid sparks a friendship with oddball inventor Nikola Tesla in Samantha Hunt's dazzling novel." Vanity Fair "Sophisticated pastiche of science fiction, fantasy, melodrama, and historical anecdote...It all adds up to a precocious math of human marvel." Elle "Former real-life scientist Nikola Tesla befriends a fictional hotel chambermaid in Samantha Hunt's ingenious work of historical fiction." Marie Claire "Hunt's magical new novel is a love letter to one of the world's most remarkable inventorsFor a momenteverything seems possible." The Washington Post [Hunt] puts her considerable talents to workTesla's storyis crafted with an intensity...that makes the heart beat faster." Los Angeles Times "Full of vivid imagery, sounds, memoriesthis novel is a sweet story of just how normal it is to be different." Boston Globe Hunt's history-steeped talereminds us that science necessitates creativity, which also, of course, is the essence of literature." The San Francisco Chronicle "In her vivid reimaginingHunt pursues the links between science and creativity and storytelling and invention to their logical extreme." New York Magazine Gloriouspages of prose: daring and delicious, perfectly calibrated, fresh but not raw, original but neither off-putting nor disconcertingly strange." The Chicago Tribune [INVENTION is] a smart, colorful novel about aspiration and wish fulfillment in a worldengineers can't control." - The Believer "Hunt's fascination with language is unmistakable, resulting in beautiful, intimate observations . . . elegant, inspired." The Village Voice "Marvelousone wishes these scenes would never end[it] takes its readers back to a kindler, gentler New York." - LA Weekly "Hunt weaves the stranger-than-fiction factsinto an engaging novelthat crackles with the possibility and promise of scientific innovation." - Seed "An electrified, magnetized concoction that pleases, teases and dazzlestakeoff soaring with her, you will not be disappointed..." - The Oregonian "The author is rapturous, vividly in love with her subjects and her characters." - New York Observer "[Hunt's] novel might be 2008's 'Special Topics in Calamity Physics'soulful and scientific at the same time." - Velocity Weekly "An engaging portrait...and a poignant one of Tesla...There's much food for thought here and some very beautiful prose." Kirkus Reviews Hunt (The Seas) delivers a breathtaking novel that is both difficult to classify and impossible to ignore." Library Journal "Oddly charming and pleasantly peculiar, Hunt's novel offers a unique perspective on hope and imagining life's possibilities." Booklist, ALA Inspires both awe and envyHunt seems to achieve this blend effortlesslymaking it more remarkable still with her own offbeat sensibility." Bookpage Hunt weaves history and imagination to create a seductively original world" -- Heidi Julavits, author of The Uses of Enchantment A highwire performance by a soulful and wildly intelligent writer." -- Rene Steinke, author of the NBA-nominated Holy Skirts You hold in your hands an important, fun, educational, magic read." -- Darin Strauss, author of Chang and Eng

Please Wait