{"product_id":"percivals-planet-paperback","title":"Percival's Planet - Paperback","description":"\u003cp\u003eby \u003cb\u003eMichael Byers\u003c\/b\u003e (Author)\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eA novel of ambition and obsession centered on the race to discover Pluto in 1930, pitting an untrained Kansas farm boy against the greatest minds of Harvard at the run-down Lowell Observatory in Arizona \u003c\/b\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eIn 1928, the boy who will discover Pluto, Clyde Tombaugh, is on the family farm, grinding a lens for his own telescope under the immense Kansas sky. In Flagstaff, Arizona, the staff of Lowell Observatory is about to resume the late Percival Lowell's interrupted search for Planet X. Meanwhile, the immensely rich heir to a chemical fortune has decided to go west to hunt for dinosaurs and in Cambridge, Massachussetts, the most beautiful girl in America is going slowly insane while her ex-heavyweight champion boyfriend stands by helplessly, desperate to do anything to keep her. Inspired by the true story of Tombaugh and set in the last gin-soaked months of the flapper era, \u003ci\u003ePercival's Planet\u003c\/i\u003e tells the story of the intertwining lives of half a dozen dreamers, schemers, and madmen. Following Tombaugh's unlikely path from son of a farmer to discoverer of a planet, the novel touches on insanity, mathematics, music, astrophysics, boxing, dinosaur hunting, shipwrecks--and what happens when the greatest romance of your life is also the source of your life's greatest sorrow.\u003ch3\u003eAuthor Biography\u003c\/h3\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eMichael Byers\u003c\/b\u003e is the author of the story collection \u003ci\u003eThe Coast of Good Intentions\u003c\/i\u003e, a finalist for the PEN\/Hemingway Award, and the acclaimed novel \u003ci\u003eLong for This World\u003c\/i\u003e, winner of the First Novel Award from Virginia Commonwealth University. Both were \u003ci\u003eNew York Times\u003c\/i\u003e Notable Books. A former Stegner Fellow and Whiting Award winner, he teaches at the University of Michigan.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cdiv\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eNumber of Pages:\u003c\/strong\u003e 432\u003c\/div\u003e\u003cdiv\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eDimensions:\u003c\/strong\u003e 1.3 x 8.5 x 5.5 IN\u003c\/div\u003e\u003cdiv\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003ePublication Date:\u003c\/strong\u003e August 16, 2011\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"Books by splitShops","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":42134457516167,"sku":"9780312573560","price":28.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0601\/2623\/2711\/files\/b603b42789fcc0742b0e749ae2543f96.webp?v=1732641982","url":"https:\/\/booksby.splitshops.com\/products\/percivals-planet-paperback","provider":"Books by splitShops","version":"1.0","type":"link"}