S.
Originally written in 1936, two years before Capek's death and three years before the Nazi invasion of Czechoslovakia, War with the Newts is considered by many to be Capek's greatest book. Working in the "fantastic" satiric tradition of Wells, Orwell, and Vonnegut, Capek chronicles the discovery of a colony of highly intelligent giant salamanders off the coast of an Indonesian island. Capek sardonically details all the reactions of the civilized world - from horror to skepticism, from intellectual fascination to mercantile opportunism - and the ultimate destruction from which it (and the newts) might not escape.
Themes & atmosphere
What you might want to know about S.
The questions readers send us most often, answered without spoilers.
Inside a slipcase, a fake 1949 novel called Ship of Theseus by V. M. Straka. In its margins, a college senior and a grad student pass handwritten notes, postcards, and clippings as they try to identify Straka.
The most commonly searched is S. by J.J. Abrams and Doug Dorst (2013), an immersive novel-in-a-book that includes inserts, postcards, and handwritten margin notes from two characters reading the same book.
Yes. S. has multiple simultaneous narratives: the printed novel, the marginalia conversation between two readers, and the inserts. Many readers establish their own reading order rather than going page by page.
S. is 309 pages in standard print editions, though page counts vary slightly between hardcover, paperback, and large-print formats.
At an average reading pace of about 250 words per minute, S. takes most readers 5 to 7 hours to finish.
S. is a standalone novel by Karel Čapek, not part of a series.
S. is available in hardcover, paperback, ebook, and audiobook formats from Amazon, Bookshop.org, ThriftBooks, and most major bookstores.