(1998) was Amis’s second short story collection after
Einstein’s Monsters(1987). Along with his eighth novel,
The Information(1995), it was the book for which Amis, thanks to his new agent Andrew (‘the Jackal’) Wiley, had secured an advance reputed to be around half-a-million pounds. It is almost twice as long as
Einstein’s Monsters– in the original hardback editions, the books ran to 231 and 127 pages respectively – and contains nine stories, compared to the earlier volume’s five stories and an introductory essay. The title
Heavy Watermight suggest that the volume shares with
Einstein’s Monstersa concern with nuclear weapons (heavy water, or deuterium oxide (D20) is used in some nuclear reactors). But this collection’s concerns are…
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Citation: Tredell, Nicolas. "Heavy Water". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 28 October 2011 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=10621, accessed 25 April 2024.]
