The work of Copernicus famously shattered the medieval view of the universe. Here his life is powerfully evoked in a novel that tells of a painfully shy man, baffled by the conspiracies that rage around him and his ideas while he searches for the great truths of life.

Johannes Kepler, born in 1571 in Germany, was one of the world's greatest mathematicians and astronomers. This novel brilliantly recreates his life - his prides, complexities, vanities and talents - and his incredible drive to chart the stars and planets. In so doing it illuminates the realities of Renaissance Europe, its harshness and its glory.

A historian, on the brink of completing his book on Isaac Newton, rents a cottage in Ireland for the summer. In particular he focuses on Newton's mental collapse of 1693. He begins to imaginatively construct the personal histories of those involved, but these attempts to unravel the nature of Newton's relationships prove powerful and far from accurate . . .