In The Geometer Lobachevsky, Duncan follows his interest in internationality and materiality, leading to unforeseeable connections between people and places. Set in the early 1950s, the story follows Soviet geometer (mathematician) Nikolai Lobachevsky who is a Glav Torf representative aiding Bord na Móna with a land survey. In Ireland on this state visit, he receives a letter from the MGB ordering him back to Leningrad for 'a special appointment'. Immediately suspicious, he goes into hiding on a small island in the Shannon Estuary where he waits in the hope of some day returning safely home.

Following Duncan's critically acclaimed Love Notes from a German Building Site(2019), A Sabbatical in Leipzig (2020) and Midfield Dynamo (2021), Duncan's themes of emigration, displacement and work connect Ireland with the world stage. Colm Tóibín said of Love Notes: 'Written in spare, exact prose ... Duncan writes beautifully about cold weather, gruff manners, systems of hierarchy ... A portrait of work [and] a picture of a sensibility'.

Adrian Duncan was born in County Longford and originally trained as an engineer. He is a Berlin-based visual artist and filmmaker. His short fictions have appeared in literary journals both in Ireland and the USA. His acclaimed debut novel, Love Notes from a German Building Site, published by Lilliput and Head of Zeus in 2019. He was shortlisted for the Emerging Writer Award at the inaugural 2020 Dalkey Literary Awards and won the inaugural John McGahern Annual Book Prize. His second novel, A Sabbatical in Leipzig, was published by Lilliput in 2020 and is forthcoming from Profile Books. It was shortlisted for the Kerry Group Irish Novel of the Year Award 2021. His first short story collection, Midfield Dynamo, was published in 2021 and was longlisted for the Edge Hill Short Story Prize.