The Xenotext: Book 2

By Christian Bök

The first work of 'living poetry' in the world, by the author of the bestselling book Eunoia.

Christian B k in Book 1 of The Xenotext outlined his plan to encode a poem into the genome of a deathless bacterium, thereby writing a text durable enough to outlive any apocalypse, surviving until the death of the Sun itself. After more than two decades of effort, B k has, at last, succeeded at this incredible experiment, and Book 2 of The Xenotext situates his enterprise within the deep time of the cosmos.

B k rehearses some of the techniques likely to be used in the future to preserve the cultural heritage of our civilization against a potential planetary disaster (be it thermonuclear warfare or astrophysical barrage); moreover, B k speculates that, buried within the biochemistry of Life itself, there really does exist an innate beauty, if not a hidden poetry - a literal message that we might read, if we deign to seek it.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1552454983
• ISBN13: 9781552454985
• Release Date: June 2025
• Publisher: Coach House Books
• Length: 160 Pages
• Weight: 0.60 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.6" x 4.9" x 7.9"