On the Calculation of Volume I & II: Review & Analysis
- Feb 10
- 6 min read
An ordinary life journey, explored extraordinarily
Spoiler-Free Overview
I happened upon On the Calculation of Volume I in a bookstore a month ago and decided in the moment to pick it up, recalling that I'd seen it at one point listed alongside other weird fiction I'd enjoyed but still not being 100% sure it wasn't just a strange little misshelved math textbook. Suffice to say, I'm incredibly glad I did.
On the Calculation of Volume is a (currently) six-part series of Danish-language novels by Solvej Balle, begun in 2020 and with English translations beginning in 2024. Volume IV's English publication is expected April 14th, 2026.
The series follows Tara Selter, a woman in her late 20s whose ordinary life as a wife and traveling antique dealer takes a sudden turn when she finds herself repeating the same day, November 18th, over and over again. As time passes, we see her adapt to and attempt to understand her new world through her daily journal entries.
I’ll be referencing author Solvej Balle alone for the remainder of the post, but I want to also credit translators Barbara Haveland (Volumes I & II), Sophia Hersi Smith and Jennifer Russell (Volumes III & IV) for carrying through the calm, reflective, mesmerizing tone that makes these books what they are.
I highly recommend these books if you're in the mood for a thoughtful, mysterious read that certainly doesn't overstay its welcome. I think discovering Tara's circumstances along with her is the best way to enjoy it, but feel free to read on into spoiler territory if you need more convincing – or just want to hear what makes this story and experience so fascinating.
Plot
Since the story is ostensibly made up of Tara's journal entries from her many November 18ths, most of Volume I interweaves Tara's current life at day 121 and beyond with her flashbacks and explanations to what has occurred up until that point. My brief summary will be linear, which may again detract a touch from the experience.
Tara is traveling to Paris on November 17th, seeking rare books and manuscripts on behalf of her and her husband's joint antique business, T. & T. Selter. Her first November 18th also proceeds normally, with her purchasing a few older volumes her clientele are interested in before stopping in to socialize with her old friend Philip, another antiques dealer specializing in coins from ancient Rome, and his new assistant & girlfriend Marie. She burns her hand on an old heater, purchases a Roman sestertius from Philip, and retires to her hotel for the night, anticipating an appointment on the 19th.
Which never comes, as she wakes to find November 18th repeating on her. She notably keeps a toothbrush and a few (but not all) of the books she'd purchased the day before, as well as the scar from her burn, but the sestertius and remaining items have returned to where they came from. Other than her, no one perceives that the day is being repeated.
Tara re-purchases the coin and a few other things before returning home to her husband Thomas in the fictional French town of Clairon-sous-Bois, explaining her situation to him honestly rather than inventing some reason for coming home a day early. He believes her and resolves to help her, except it's already late and by morning he's forgotten, forcing Tara to repeat her explanation. (Tara herself stays in place as the day resets, unlike most time loop stories, so she simply wakes next to Thomas and explains upon his waking.)
This paradigm repeats for almost half of Tara's first year of November 18ths, as she does her best to live her life normally despite the changed circumstances. She makes a number of discoveries during this time:
time is passing for her body, between her hair and nails growing and her scar healing
things she keeps on or very close to her person do not reset, thus allowing her to begin and keep her journal
she is using up the world around her: the shelves home to her most frequent purchases grow barren over the months, and cafes remove offerings she's exhausted
though she can use a phone or computer, nothing electronic is ever saved and the technology ceases to function altogether if no longer important to her
Eventually, not being able to bear repeating her explanations to Thomas, Tara moves into their guest room and avoids him throughout the day, pretending to be in Paris and knowing every moment of his day by heart. Later she finds her own house in the town, visits her family, lives in Paris (as she had as a student) and even travels Europe in search of the seasons she feels she should be experiencing based on her calendar.
A moment comes at the end of Volume II which disrupts Tara's increasingly reclusive and reflective existence, and which had me exclaim out loud upon reading it. I won't spoil it here (you can find the blurb for Volume III if you're desperate to learn it), but it's truly a perfect development that has me incredibly excited to dive into III and IV once that translation is released in April.
Analysis & Allegory
As I've already alluded to plenty, Tara's journey is a relatively calm and reflective one. She repeats ideas in her journals as she tries to process them and spends a lot of pages waxing poetic about the material impact she's having on the world around her and her longing for summers and springs and winters in her world of November 18ths.
From a sci-fi/mystery perspective, her discoveries are relatively slow but are incredibly rewarding each time, because author Solvej Balle has clearly thought this through and has Tara taking rational steps to understand her situation: whether staying awake through the night to attempt to avoid/observe the reset or thinking over every moment of her first November 18th to identify a cause, whether it be the sestertius or one of the rare books.
I'd already enjoy just the normal story plenty, for its quiet mystery and tension and how it calls to mind parts of House of Leaves and Our Wives Under the Sea among other wonderful weird fiction.
But (and this is purely my observation, I haven't read up on anyone else's impressions yet) I think On the Calculation of Volume is also an incredible allegory for a woman's relatively ordinary life, given added tension and attention by being told through this sci-fi/mystery lens.
Take away the time loop, and what is metaphorically happening here? Tara is on a work trip, chats amiably with an old friend, sustains an injury and decides to come home early. She spends a few months trying to live her normal life with her husband, but can feel that something has irreversibly changed. He can no longer truly understand her without her working to make herself known.
She moves, first to a different bedroom, then to a different house and city, as she tries to make a life for herself as an individual. But the world still feels wrong, so she travels in search of something that feels right. All the while she searches for the answer to what went wrong, explores new interests and hobbies, and reflects on both her profound personal impact on the world as a consumer under capitalism and her inability to leave any lasting mark on the world otherwise. (Okay I saw environmentalism listed under the book's themes on Wikipedia, which I hadn't consciously thought of but also neatly weaves into her material impact on the world and her search for the correct seasons!)
While again avoiding spoilers for the end of Volume II, it seems to fit into this allegory perfectly by having something 'real' disrupt Tara's isolated existence. And Solvej Balle achieves all of this subtext without having either narrative layer suffer for it; I could follow both throughout and had a much enriched reading experience for the dual meanings.
As for the title, I think it's most suited to the allegory: the volume of a person's life, the space they take up and resources they consume. The illustrations on the covers? That'll have to wait.
Verdict & To be continued...
If it isn't clear already, I highly recommend these books to anyone who has the patience and curiosity to follow Tara at her own pace. I'll certainly be back to review and discuss Volumes III & IV after the latter's April release, and may even return sooner to discuss On the Calculation of Volume alongside Pluribus and Russian Doll, because I think there is a lot of rich overlap in narrative and meaning.
Have you read these books? I'd live to hear your thoughts!
If, like Tara, you find yourself living an isolated and alienated existence, perhaps my post about mindfulness and death from last week will help!
Thanks for reading and until next time <3
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