A PERFECT VACUUM BY STANISŁAW LEM IN SOUTH AFRICA

Condition: Good. Name of previous owner on flyleaf. This is a collection of perfect yet imaginary reviews of nonexistent books. With insidious wit, the author beguiles us with a parade of delightful, disarmingly familiar inventions. "Lem is Harpo Marx and Franz Kafka and Isaac Asimov rolled up into one and down the white rabbit's hole" (Detroit News). About the author () Polish science fiction writer Stanislaw Lem was born on September . A medical graduate of Cracow University, he is at home both in the sciences and in philosophy, and this broad erudition gives his writings genuine depth. He has published extensively, not only fiction, but also theoretical studies. His books have been translated into 41 languages and sold over 27 million copies. He gained international acclaim for The Cyberiad, a series of short stories, which was first published in . A trend toward increasingly serious philosophical speculation is found in his later works, such as Solaris (), which was made into a Soviet film by Russian director Andrei Tarkovsky in and remade by Steven Soderbergh in . He died on March in Krakow at the age of 84.