The Limits of Vision

An obsessive-compulsive housewife teeters on the edge of madness in this “immensely intelligent and delightful . . . dance of a book” (The New York Times).

The Limits of Vision is Robert Irwin’s irrepressibly entertaining and imaginative novel about a young housewife named Marcia and the war she wages against dirt.

Set over the course of a single day as Marcia goes about her quotidian activities—having the girls over for coffee, tidying the house, making dinner—it becomes increasingly clear that her sanity is unraveling at an alarming rate. Irwin is at his creative best here, as he describes Marcia’s conversations with Mucor, the “mouthpiece for the Dirt, the Empire of Decay and Ruin, the Principle of Evil,” as well as such scientists and artists of the past as William Blake, Charles Dickens, Leonardo da Vinci, and Charles Darwin.

“Binds together philosophy and mayhem . . . The Limits of Vision ranks as a genuine (and rare) work of the imagination.” —Jeanette Winterson, New York Times–bestselling author

“Unique, a ravishing product of pure imagination.” —Ruth Rendell, The New York Times–bestselling author

“[An] astonishing work of imagination and erudition by a former professor of medieval history.” —Publishers Weekly