With playful precision, Judith Schalansky explores the material conditions of life – and of writing itself. Her new book is about everything: the nutritional value of marble pigs, the weight of the Earth, the occupancy plan of Noah’s Ark, or the ghost of the Brocken – phenomena in which a hidden reality reveals itself. Part essay, part story, each text begins with a block of marble and a sculptor’s studio, a workshop at the art academy in Guadalajara, and an ascent of the mist-shrouded Brocken.