Somewhere under the desert lies Camp Archimedes, a government institute populated with convicts and deserters. Infected by Pallidine, a strain of syphilis that bestows genius, they’re paying a terrible price for transcendence. “Truly, the world is ending. Not by ice and not by fire, but by centrifugal force.” We experience the camp through Sacchetti’s journal, a voluble poet and conscientious objector tasked with documenting the inmates’ imposed Faustian bargain. As the narrative...