Philippe Forest's New Novel 'Le Chat de Schrödinger' Explores Quantum Physics and Loss

Philippe Forest's latest novel, 'Le Chat de Schrödinger', published by Éditions Cécile Defaut, intertwines quantum mechanics with personal narrative. The book takes its title from Erwin Schrödinger's famous 1935 thought experiment, where a cat is simultaneously dead and alive. Forest uses this paradox as a springboard to explore themes of reality, loss, and love. The story begins with the appearance of a stray black cat in the narrator's garden, which triggers a speculative meditation on existence. Forest connects this event to the death of his daughter, recounted in his earlier novel 'L'Enfant éternel', suggesting that literature must confront the impossible. The novel also references figures like Niels Bohr, Picasso, and Japanese writer Natsume Sōseki. Forest describes the work as a philosophical fable in the tradition of Voltaire and Diderot, opposing optimism with compassion. A critical study of Forest's oeuvre, 'Littérature à contretemps' by Maïté Snauwaert, a professor at the University of Alberta, Canada, has also been published by Éditions Cécile Defaut.