The Discovery of Slowness (original German title: Die Entdeckung der Langsamkeit) is a novel by Sten Nadolny, written under a double conceit: first, as a novelization of the life of British Arctic explorer Sir John Franklin, and second as a hymn of praise to "slowness," a quality which Nadolny's fictional Franklin possesses in abundance. Published in Germany in 1983, its fame spread through the English translation by Ralph Freedman, first published in the United States by Viking Penguin in 1987; in Nadolny's native Germany it has also been the subject of television programs, experimental films, and even an opera composed by Giorgio Battistelli.
