ISBN 0-553-56887-6 (US pbk)

"The acclaimed author of Quasar now turns his vision from a disturbed city to the depths of suburbia, combining science, shamanism and cyberterror into an arresting new mix.

"Bob Wilson is a lawyer, living the perfect suburban life, until he unwittingly takes on the custody case from hell. Suddenly his existence becomes a series of inexplicable mysteries, centered around a strange new discipline called thaumatomathematics, where magic and science mix, and death becomes the key to beatific ecstasy." [publicity blurb, US pbk, 1996]

"I wanted to write a Hardy Boys/Nancy Drew mystery for grown-ups, with the cozy, delicious, spooky feeling you get from mysterious messages left on doorsteps, turbaned foreigners lurking on foggy nights, unseen shapes rustling the bushes -- and make it all revolve around some serious mystical computer science and 4-D geometry. Kind of The Hardy Boys, At Middle Age, Meet the Numinous Deep-Structure of Reality. Only my editor didn't like that title, so we called it The Higher Space." --Jamil Nasir.

"The Higher Space is a charming blend of mysticism and chaos theory. Bob Wilson, attorney, is volunteered for a pro bono custody battle by his well-meaning wife. The object of this battle is a 14-year-old female computer genius, enthralled with the new 'field' of Thaumatomathematics -- magic-mathematics, a melding of chaos theory, Buddhism, and shamanism. He takes the girl into his home, which becomes the center of some very strange happenings. The birth mother, a convict, werewolf, and nun with her own cult, wants the girl for less than maternal reasons. Events get wilder and wilder, especially after the FBI becomes involved, intent on protecting non-existent state secrets." --Carolyn Cushman (in Locus, Issue 425, Vol.36, No.6, June 1996).

• Books by Jamil Nasir