The Vasalis Paradox

10 hrs. 50 min.

Author Rafael Cardetti

Narrator Sergey Kirsanov

Description

A new novel by a well-known French writer describes the world of restorers, collectors, and antiquarians, including workers at the Louvre and professors from the Sorbonne. But the origins of the events unfolding on the pages of the book lie in the distant past—back in the era of the great scholar Thomas Aquinas and Pope Clement IV. It was this head of the Vatican who ordered that every single copy of the book by Vasalys be destroyed, burned at the stake by an erudite monk. The memory of the heretic survived only in legends, and his existence in the 20th century was put into question.

At one of the Sorbonne universities, a miniature is stolen—it served as the cover illustration for Vasalys’s treatise, written by an unknown author. The only thing known about him is that, for his scandalous work, he was executed under Pope Clement IV. The legend of the treatise seeped through the centuries, and the author’s name became a symbol of intellectual freedom. The scholar who devoted his entire life to searching for the mysterious treatise unexpectedly took his own life.

When the library’s holdings are inventoried, three more rare, irreplaceable books are found missing. Material damage is half a million euros. The disappearance of the books is accompanied by a series of mysterious events and the deaths of people.

The investigation brings investigators’ attention to a university lecturer and a wealthy bookseller. The investigation that begins leads to utterly unexpected results…