While working in the Nobel Archives in Stockholm, attempting to understand why his hero Sigmund Freud never received a Nobel Prize, a psychiatrist makes an unusual discovery. Among the unsolicited self-nominations filed under “Crackpots” are six letters addressed to Ragnar Sohlman, executor of Alfred Nobel’s will. Remarkably, each letter—save one—is written by a different Nobel laureate, including Rudyard Kipling, Ivan Pavlov, Theodore Roosevelt, and Marie Curie, and each claims to explain how and why Stonehenge was built.

Further investigation uncovers a startling possibility: Alfred Nobel, intrigued by a young woman’s obsession with the ancient monument, may have added a secret codicil to his will. The clause establishes a prize—reserved exclusively for Nobel laureates—to be awarded to whoever solves the mystery of Stonehenge. 

Is this history or fabrication? Drawing on a wealth of primary materials—letters, photographs, wills, and archival documents—The Stonehenge Letters presents itself as a wryly annotated archive of a clandestine intellectual competition. With its eccentric submissions and contentious adjudication, the novel sustains a playful yet rigorous ambiguity, inviting the reader to decide where fact ends and fiction begins.

Picked as one of the Books of the Year by Quill & Quire