Square Wave

"Compelling and horrifying... the uneasy melding of the actual and the imagined gives the book its own peculiar rhythm."
—Chicago Tribune

"Square Wave is an experimental paean to process, to our oscillations between extremes, to the revolutions that come and go and the worlds they leave behind in the ping-ponging between the poles that lie at the hinterlands of human experience."
—Los Angeles Times

"I don't know of anything like [Square Wave]. [Mark de Silva is] doing something that I think few people have dared to do. It was thrilling. I think it's really an interesting book and I'll be reading it again and again."
—Michael Silverblatt, KCRW Bookworm

"Beautifully written... de Silva's novel is refreshing in its belief that disparate ideas can, in some sense, be united, that experimental music has something to say to experimental meteorlogy. De Silva's ambition in creating a work that aspires to the heights of the visionary is commendable in itself. History, violence, music, science, human interaction—Square Wave treats these not just as facts to be reported, but as dots to be connected."
—Slant Magazine

"A novel that looks our technocratic, militarized present in the face, Square Wave tells the story of a night watchman who discovers weaponized weather modification technologies. It sounds crazy, but in de Silva’s hands it all makes perfect (and terrifying) sense."
—Flavorwire

"Part mystery, part sci-fi thriller... highly topical for Americans today."
—The Millions

"Mark de Silva’s truly accomplished Square Wave defies all categories. Provocative, fascinating, and edifying, Square Wave is a fiercely intelligent and thrillingly inventive novel."
—Dana Spiotta

"A brilliant debut, ambitious with its ideas, extraordinary in their syntheses and execution, and its stylish prose lit up everywhere by a piercing intelligence."
—Neel Mukherjee

"Square Wave is, above all, just excellent. Mark de Silva’s prose is simultaneously uncompromising and unassailable. The resulting work is kinetic with an almost wistful erudition that relentlessly but organically plumbs the intersections between art, politics, and our baser human qualities. Ultimately, the novel's defiance of easy categorization or explication charges the story with a compelling mental resonance that somehow feels instructive."
—Sergio De La Pava


Carl Stagg, a writer researching imperial power struggles in 17th century Sri Lanka, ekes out a living as a watchman in a factionalized America where confidence in democracy has eroded. Along his nightly patrol, Stagg finds a beaten prostitute, one in a series of monstrous attacks. Suspicious of his supervisor's intentions, Stagg partners with a fellow part-time watchman, Ravan, to seek the truth. Ravan hails from a family developing storm-dispersal technologies, whose research is jointly funded by the Indian and American governments.

The watchmen's discoveries put a troubling complexion on Stagg's research, giving it new shape and impetus, just as the weather modification project begins to appear less about dispersing storms than weaponizing them.

By gracefully weaving a study of the psychological effects of a militarized state upon its citizenry with topics as diverse as microtonal music and cloud physics, Square Wave signals the triumphant arrival of a young writer certain to be considered one of the most ambitious and intelligent of his generation. Gatefold cover.

Mark de Silva holds degrees in philosophy from Brown (AB) and Cambridge (PhD). Having served for several years on the editorial staff of the New York Times's opinion pages, he now freelances for the paper's Sunday magazine. Square Wave is his first novel.