New calculations indicate a strong episodicity in mass flux across the 660 km depth when realistic mantle parameters are used (W. R. Peltier, Univ. Toronto, Canada), but in a time-averaged sense ...

Also, Mantel reliably locates the right sensory details to evoke ... From the novel’s opening lines—“My name is Serena Frome (rhymes with plume) and almost forty years ago I was sent on a secret ...