“Two Bodies in Flight is a resounding collection that spans time and space to moments of genius, miracle, and discovery that are both history-altering and deeply personal. Nayani Jenson writes with deft clarity and tenderness about what it means to be human.”— JESSICA JOHNS, author of Bad Cree

“Nayani Jensen’s stories remind us that the people behind scientific discoveries are just people like us—obsessive, under pressure, aging, unsure, eager to prove themselves, courting disaster. If there is a lesson that unites these lives across centuries, it is that the effort of an earnest life is never wasted, even if it goes unrecognized in one’s lifetime. Like energy itself, the effects of a life well lived cannot be destroyed.” — IAN WILLIAMS, Giller prize-winning author of You’ve Changed

THE HUMAN STORIES AT THE HEART OF SCIENCE

Two Bodies in Flight, the astonishing debut from Rhodes scholar and award-winning author Nayani Jensen, brings together short fiction that imagines the inner lives of people poised at the intersection of history and science. A new father in the Golden Age of Dutch Science searches for the source of life; two aviators at the cusp of their careers grapple with adulthood and a disastrous crash; a young woman prepares to write the Olympics of mathematics exams in nineteenth-century Cambridge; a manuscript changes hands from 9th-century Baghdad across continents, altering meanings as it goes. Based on historical figures and archival research, in each story the deeply personal and the scientific layer to produce unexpected new meanings. Two Bodies in Flight will appeal to fans of scientific biography (Oppenheimer, The Theory of Everything), or to readers of Benjamin Labatut and Andrea Barrett.

Synopses

1. “Broken Parts” (Muhammad al-Khwarizmi, Baghdad, 818): In conversation with a paper-merchant, mathematician Al-Khwarizmi writes his treatise Al-jabr (Algebra).

2. “Causes and Cures” (Hildegard von Bingen, 1151): A medieval mystic and abbess attempts to establish an independent abbey for herself and her women, while completing a book of medicines.

3. “The Motion of the Heart” (William Harvey, Oxford, 1642): The celebrated physician to Charles I helps the King flee during the English Civil War while realizing that his work on the circulation of blood has taken on enormous political significance.

4. “Like Rabbits” (Regnier De Graaf, Delft, the Dutch Republic, 1672): A new father fights for priority in the discovery of the human egg while grappling with the death of his infant son. Winner of the 2024 RBC Bronwen Wallace Award for emerging writers, Writers’ Trust of Canada.

5. “Sparrows in a Bell Jar” (Marie-Anne Paulze Lavoisier, Paris, 1805). After the execution of her husband (chemist, tax collector, and discoverer of Oxygen) during the French Revolution, Marie tries to identify where they went wrong.

6. “A Garden of Stars” (Caroline Herschel, Hanover, 1848): An elderly female astronomer reflects on wasted potential, legacy and aging as she experiments with the new process of photography.

7. “Storm Warning” (Robert FitzRoy, London/at sea, 1864): The Captain of Darwin’s Beagle voyage and pioneer of the weather forecast attempts to issue a storm warning while facing public scrutiny and the pressure of faith and evolutionary ideas.

8. “Proof” (Philippa Fawcett, Cambridge, 1890): A young woman races the men in the Olympics of mathematics exams in 19th Century Cambridge. Forthcoming in Ploughshares, Jan 2027.

9. “Two Bodies in Flight” (The Aerial Experiment Association, Ontario/Nova Scotia, 1909): Two of Alexander Graham Bell’s young protégés attempt the first two-man flight in Canada, while trying to resolve complicated feelings about their friendship and loss of youthful innocence. Published in The New Quarterly, Jan. 2025.

10. “A Field Guide to Bird Songs” (Aretas Saunders, Connecticut, 1944): Epistolary. An aging naturalist and teacher writes to beloved students fighting across different battlefields while developing a new language to transcribe birdsong, weighing the value of a life lived quietly vs. one of action.

11. “Feeding Habits of the Freshwater Garpike” (Sri Lanka, 1970): A young woman researches the habits of a new species while navigating complicated department politics.

12. “Forward, Backward” (Speculative climate-fiction): In a near-future, researchers have created isolated communities recreating the technology and lifestyle of different periods of history, searching for the optimal balance of carbon consumption and quality-of-life. A mother attempts to get antibiotics for her daughter. Published in Nature, October 2023.

PRAISE FOR NAYANI JENSEN

“‘Like Rabbits’ is historical fiction at its most intimate and convincing. This story beautifully harks back to the Golden Age of Dutch science, a time when men played gods. As one such man attempts to conceive with his wife, he seeks credit for his ground-breaking discoveries at great personal cost — only to face tragedy and his own mortality. With elegance, authority, and vitality, Nayani Jensen gives us a timeless story of ambition and a tender portrait of a marriage.” — JURY CITATION, 2024 Bronwen Wallace Award for Emerging Writers