From Pulitzer Prize nominee Lawrence Weschler, a fascinating profile of a film legend and amateur astrophysicist whose investigations could reshape our understanding of the universe.

Waves Passing in the Night is an investigation into contemporary astrophysics wrapped in the compelling story of a Hollywood soundtrack composer turned renegade theoretician. It all adds up to a thrilling ride through physical and mathematical space, featuring eye-opening parallels that will challenge and enhance any open-minded reader's view of the heavens. -- Billy Collins An inviting portrait of an admirable and accomplished man. We come to see science as closed club, science as abstruse and narrow, science as caste. But Weschler allows that it could be the other way around, too: science as protector of truth and progress, science as guardian against kooks. What began as an exploration of a 'far out' but relatable idea from a 'far out' but relatable guy has become instead a study of the praxis of science. Weschler leaves us pondering how firmly we know what we think we know. Two of my favorite people have collaborated to produce a remarkable work. -- Errol Morris An amateur scientist investigates oddly musical mysteries in the motion of the planets in this scintillating true-astronomy saga... Weschler remains sympathetic to both sides in this debate between an inspired novice and skeptical pros, expanding it into a fascinating lesson on the nature of scientific understanding and the ways people seek it. -- starred review Publishers Weekly A marvelous book, full of wonders and delights. Lawrence Weschler describes Walter Murch and his celestial theories in a way that lights up the reader's mind like a pinball machine. -- Ian Frazier Riding waves and crests of inspired speculation, Lawrence Weschler's brilliant new missive takes readers to the outer limits of an astronomical theory abandoned long ago, as it finds wobbly new life in the mind of an unexpected tinkerer. This lively guide to film editor Walter Murch and his 'gravitational astro-acoustics' is a genuine treat. -- Geoff Manaugh, author of BLDGBLOG and A BURGLAR'S GUIDE TO THE CITY Everything That Rises ultimately offers not just the quirks of one man's vision but a sublime way of seeing. Boston Globe on EVERYTHING THAT RISES Weschler's graceful collection of essays and interviews stands out like a rare bloom. Charming, idiosyncratic and deeply intelligent, the book will likely captivate even readers who usually bypass the art history section. -- starred review Publishers Weekly on EVERYTHING THAT RISES Seeing Is Forgetting and True to Life are not only about the artists talking to Weschler or, through him, to each other; they're about the artists talking to themselves. -- David Ulin Los Angeles Times Book Review Weschler has charted [Robert Irwin's] journey with exceptional clarity and cogency. He has also, in the process, provided what seems to me the best running history of postwar West Coast art that I have yet seen. -- Calvin Tomkins on SEEING IS FORGETTING THE NAME OF THE THING ONE SEES

Lawrence Weschler is a critic, journalist, and author who was a staff writer at the New Yorker for more than twenty years. His books include Mr. Wilson's Cabinet of Wonder, for which he was shortlisted for the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Critics Circle Award, Boggs: A Comedy of Values, and Everything That Rises, which received the 2006 National Book Critics Circle Award for criticism. He has written for the Los Angeles Times, the New York Times, the Nation, Vanity Fair, Truthdig, and Harper's, among others.