| The Tesseract | |
| Author: | Alex Garland |
| Country: | United Kingdom |
| Language: | English |
| Publisher: | Viking Press (UK) Riverhead Books (US) |
| Release Date: | 1998 (UK), 1999 (US) |
| Media Type: | Print (paperback) |
| Pages: | 226 |
| Isbn: | 0-670-87016-1 |
| Oclc: | 40360022 |
The Tesseract is a novel by Alex Garland. It was initially published by Viking Press in 1998.[1] [2]
The story intertwines the lives of Manila gangsters, mothers and street children. The novel chronicles numerous characters in non-linear storylines and explores themes of love, fate, violence, power, and choices. It is Garland's second novel.
The term 'tesseract' is used for the three-dimensional net of the four-dimensional hypercube rather than the hypercube itself. It is a metaphor for the characters' inability to understand the causes behind the events which shape their lives: they can only visualize the superficial world they inhabit.
The book was adapted into a film, The Tesseract, which changed the setting to Bangkok. It was directed by Oxide Pang and starred Jonathan Rhys Meyers and Saskia Reeves.