The Solitude of Prime Numbers

The Solitude of Prime Numbers by Paolo Giordano *****. I write, and this is the kind of story I like to write - - two broken characters trying to relate to others - - but written nothing like I write. It follows two characters: a severely anorexic woman who was crippled in a skiing accident as a child and a man who was responsible for the death of his developmentally-challenged twin sister as a youth and became a math whiz residing somewhere on the autism spectrum. It follows them from their youth to their mid-thirties. After college they separate, one marrying, one becoming a professor, and they get back together at a time when they need each other, but neither of them can admit they need the other and they go back to their dissatisfying lives. I wanted a bit more from the ending, but the first three-quarters of the book were awesomesauce.

The chapters are very short, and sometimes are full of exposition. It is third-omni although it really only concerns the two characters, and can lapse into other points of view for a sentence, paragraph, or several pages.

"Prime numbers are divisible only by 1 and by themselves...They are suspicious, solitary numbers..."

"...twin primes:pairs of prime numbers that are close to each other, almost neighbors, but between them there is always an even number that prevents them from truly touching. Numbers like 11 and 13, 17 and 19, 41 and 43. If you have the patience to go on counting, you discover that these pairs gradually become rarer....you develop a distressing presentiment that the pairs encountered up until that point were accidental, that solitude is true destiny. Then, just when you are about to surrender...you come across another pair of twins, clutching each other tightly. ...However far you go, there will always be another two..."

It is rare that I start off a review with a quote, or quote this much! But I am tempted to stop and say here, this is it, this quote is the book. Now read it. The theme, metaphor, and meaning are all contained in these lovely words. But I will say a little more, and then try to persuade you to read this heart-shattering, elegiac, lyrically beautiful book.

The key characters in this originally Italian-language novel are Alice and Mattia, and the story spans from 1983 (roughly age 7) through 2007 (I'll let you do the math). Chapters alternate between Alice and Mattia and the story is essentially linear in time. The first chapters illustrate the separate tragedies that befell and scarred them and imprint their outlook and all their future actions. If you are not emotionally gripped and demolished by these events, then this probably isn't the book for you. You will know pretty quickly whether you will connect with these characters.

The prose is stunning, spare, subtle, and sensuous. You will feel sorrow in every space, solitude on every page. But it moves along at an effortlessly steady pace. It has a page-turning vitality that engulfs you; I was rarely "outside" of the story looking in. I was beside Alice and Mattia; they inhabited my heart as my heart expanded. The pages pressed in on me. I dare to say something flip--but it had me at hello.

I don't need to give you a synopsis. I knew nothing about this story going into it, but I soon fastened to wherever they were going. Alice and Mattia are like twin primes, and their story is a gentle, moving, and soul-ripping journey.

My only complaint was that during the last ¼ of the book, the narrative wasn't as tightly focused, and the story meandered a bit. I felt the teensiest bit of impatience until it re-entered its momentum. The ending is not gift-wrapped and tied in a bow. It stimulates thought and discussion and is open to several interpretations. If you like your denouement neat and tidy, you may want to take a pass on this one.

Paolo Giordano was the youngest winner of Italy's prestigious literary award, the Premio Strega. He was only 27. I am deeply impressed by the depth of his understanding of the human condition at such a young age. He is currently working on his PhD in particle physics.

I cannot find a source in this book for who translated it into English. But, whoever you are, I hail you for translating with such elegance and beauty. This is a real sleeper of a novel that deserves its success.

The story centers around three main characters: Alice, Michela, and Mattia. Alice lives with her parents and has always defied them in some way. When she was younger she hated attending ski school and at age fifteen she wanted a tattoo but her father told her "no", that when she turned eighteen and was paying her own way, she could then get a tattoo.

Michela and Mattia are twins but Michela suffers from mental problems and is quite behind developmentally. One day Mattia and Michela are invited to a birthday party but Mattia is too embarrassed to take his sister with him so instead, he drops her off at the park and tells her not to move that he'd be back in half an hour to pick her up. When Mattia returns, Michela is gone!

As Mattia and Alice grow they become friends but Pietro Balossino, Mattia's father, is tired of trying to infiltrate his son's strange and obscure world. He had spent many nights searching the house for sharp objects after seeing the scars on Mattia's arms. Pietro thought so much about one day finding his son face down on a blood soaked pillow that he is already thinking of his son as non-existant.

This is a coming-of-age story, a love story, a story of loneliness with a touch of melancholy and a depiction of damaged soul mates whose hearts are kindred spirits. This debut novel was a joy to read.

The Solitude of Prime Numbers was written by Paolo Giordano, an Italian physicist who is also the youngest winner of the Premio Strega, a prestigious literary award. Currently he is working on a doctorate in particle physics and resides in Italy. It is not every day that a physicist writes a beautiful and stirring novel such as this one.

Mattia and Alice, the protagonists of this novel, are both injured spirits. When Mattia was seven years old, he left his little sister, Michela, on a bench near a river and asked her to wait for him while he attended a party. He was embarrassed by her and he didn't want to take her along. She was never seen or heard from again and was assumed dead, drowned in the river. Alice always had a conflicted relationship with her father. He forced her to pursue downhill skiing which she did not enjoy. She felt like an outcast and began to act out in very unusual ways. One day, after accidentally soiling her ski outfit, she skis away from the group, falls down a cliff, and is not found for almost 24 hours. She has a broken fibula and becomes permanently`crippled' after the accident.

Mattia and Alice meet in high school and are drawn to each other. Mattia is a genius in mathematics and sees his world in numbers and physical particles, drawing deeply inside himself and away from his emotions. Because his emotions are so difficult for him to process, he resorts to cutting himself. Often, cutters like to feel the immediate pain of their injury, which is easier for them to deal with than the pain of their emotions.

Alice is anorexic and is starving herself. At dinner, she pretends to eat but secretly stuffs her food into a napkin to dispose of later. Food is one of the few things in her life that she feels she has control of. "She thought that this body was hers alone, that if she felt like it she could even destroy it, lay waste to it with indelible marks, or let it dry out like a flower picked on a whim by a child and then left to die on the ground."

Mattia and Alice spend a lot of time together, High school is a horrible experience for both of them and "they had formed a defective and asymmetrical friendship, made up of long absences and much silence, a clean and empty space where both of them could come back to breathe when the walls of their school became too close for them to ignore the feeling of suffocation."

Alice often holds Mattia's scarred hands tenderly in hers, protecting him from himself. Mattia loves Alice from a distance but can find no way to approach her. His world is viewed as ribbons of DNA or RNA or sequences of numbers. The human element of intimacy is beyond him. These two souls try to meet but seem to be stopped at every possibility.

Prime numbers are those number that can be divided only by themselves and the number one. Mathematicians don't know how many prime numbers exist but some mathematicians think that twin primes (two prime numbers separated by one number) can be found however far you count. "Mattia thought that he and Alice were like that, twin primes, alone and lost, close but not close enough to really touch each other.

This book is a poignant story of two lost souls, one injuring his body to protect himself from feeling his emotional pain and the other starving herself to feel some control over a life she finds in free spin. Both are gentle spirits but ultimately, living lives that have gotten away from them, that are out of their control. Overall, this book rates 5 stars, but I felt that something was lost in the translation, thus the 4 star rating.

Everyone has awkward moments. The protags of Prime Numbers, Mattia and Alice, are square pegs in a world of round holes, their sharp edges inflicting wounds but never wearing down enough so that they themselves can feel comfortable in their own skins. As others have pointed out, Mattia is a poster child for Asperger Syndrome, brilliant but socially inept, unable to connect with others in a meaningful way. Alice, the eternal outsider, depressed, anorexic, and picked on, sees him as a kindred soul. It is her simultaneous need for and rejection of closeness that drives their off-and-on relationship. But their mutual attraction is marred by the fact that they exhibit the same polarities, so when they get too close, forces beyond their comprehension push them apart.

"People took what they wanted, they clutched at coincidences, the few there were, and made a life of them," thinks Mattia near the end of the book. "Choices are made in brief seconds and paid for in the time that remains." The power of Prime Numbers is that it gives us insight into a peculiar and often painful world, one that has been irreparably scarred by small but devastating moments.

If you are looking for a feel-good book with lovable characters and a tidy denouement, look elsewhere. There are no happy endings in this book -- the fate of both characters is ambiguous. Read it for its small exquisite moments, for the chance to reach out and touch characters who, in real life, would never let you get that close. For the glimpse of perfect silence that will haunt you as you wonder, along with Alice, if anyone will come.

This story was odd, but in some ways it compelled me to read on, and in other ways I found it a bit annoying. I'm thinking some of the story got lost in the translation from Italian because sometimes the words seemed a bit too abrupt. Plus, the point of view switched at times and seemed a bit irrelevant to the story as a whole. It gave me a bit of a depressed feeling at the end because what appeared to be a resolution I'd hoped for ended up being disappointing instead. I suppose it all goes with the theme of the book and the solitude between the two main characters. Yet at the same time they seemed to need each other. Mattia seemed to have some form of autism and Alice had a severe eating disorder and their lack of true communication made their situations worse, especially when they were apart. They seemed less dysfunctional when they had each other. At any rate, it was a rather strange and depressing story with a lot of telling. But it intrigued me enough to keep reading so I did like it a little bit. I don't see the overall appeal that made it an international best-seller, but obviously it appealed to a whole lot of people. I could take it or leave it.

The Solitude of Prime Numbers was an intriguing title. Like many I'm certain, the title drew me in and the image on the cover, peas in a pod, sealed the deal.

The novel is about the devastating impact that parents can have on their children. The children in the book are teenagers, Alice and Mattia. They are not related but grow up near to each other in Europe. They're oddballs, but seem to be a similar sort of oddball, prime numbers in other words. They've both suffered tragedies in their lives (I won't spoil the details) and they experience a disconnect from society. Later in life, they meet again and the story is about how some people are better off alone or remain alone because that is their destiny.

This is a sad but compelling book. I couldn't put it down and I couldn't stop thinking about it afterward. This is one of those situations where I, as reader, can relate enough to the characters, who are damaged at their foundations, that I felt for them. But in the end, and this is NOT a spoiler, they are almost alien in what they do and how they do it. They are so damaged internally that they finally don't seem to respond in human ways to human situations.

I'll look for Mr. Giordano's next book, but I'm not sure I'll want to reread this one.

**spoiler alert** Wow, I absolutely loved this book and I think that everyone should read it! I thought the characters were very interesting and I loved the analogy of the characters as prime numbers. I am a statistics major so I love numbers. I thought the analogy of the "twin primes" was particularly powerful.

As for the ending, it didn't end how I wanted it to because I desperately wanted the Mattia and Alice to end up together. But I thought it was necessary for the beauty of the book that they could never fully be together. Also I thought it was interesting how they wanted to be together so badly but there just seemed to be a force separating them.

This is not a story that fits into any traditional story script. You cannot predict what will happen nor are there any heart racing moments that create a page turning saga.

But it is a wonderfully intellectual story about two people who are deeply affected by events in their childhood. Mattia and Alice seem to be destined for each other but are so broken and unable to realize what they want or to communicate their desires that they just can't make a relationship work in the traditional sense. What you realize as you continue reading is their relationship, even though they are countries apart, is still there in their hearts and their minds.

This is not a story with neat and tidy explanations. There are events that start and never finish but are left to your imagination to fill in the blanks. This story does not have lots of happy, warm fuzzy moments but it is a great book to read because of the depth of the characters and the intricacies of their thoughts and relationships with the world around them.

I was amazed knowing that this was a translated version. I commend Shaun Whiteside for seeming to capture the true essence of the book in his translation.

It is well worth reading but may not fit into the traditional quick read and easy plot that some look for in a bestseller.

Alice and Mattia, the main characters of the Italian novel "The solitude of the prime numbers", would perfectly fit the verse of the song "Eleanor Rigby" about the lonely people. These two's lives are buried with loneliness despite being surrounded by many people - even each other.

Paolo Giordano paints a beautiful portrait of people whose lives are lived better inside themselves than in the outside. Sometimes the world is cruel to Alice and Mattia, sometimes they are cruel to themselves. Their parents only try to help, but they are useless. These two characters must find ways their own, living one day each time.

If one can find hope in the end of the tunnel, it depends on the reader. The ending is a little bit open, but we can find sparkles of peace - rather than happiness. The prose is beautiful and straight focusing on the narrative. We could learn a bit more about the secondary characters, but maybe the author doesn't tell much about them because their lives aren't as lonely as Alice's and Mattia's - once this is a novel about the lonely people.

This is one of those impossible to put down novels, the kind that makes you forget the rest of the world exists. I took it on a retreat weekend and finished it in one sitting. It was just that good.

To me, Mattia struck me as autistic, or affected by the disorder to some degree. His brilliance, as well as his difficulty forming relationships and being close to people, seemed consistent with autism. Did Giordano intend this? I wonder.

And Alice... I adored her, empathizing her from the beginning. She epitomizes the child from whom extraordinary things are expected, a child driven by her father's idea of what she should be, not caring how she felt. No wonder she suffered from an eating disorder as a result of all the anxiety suffered from her childhood.

Characterization is one of the strong suits in this novel, but the plot is no less compelling. It's an all-around wonderful read, spare thought it is. I'll be on the lookout for more books by Giordano, which I hope are in progress. Not often is a debut this excellent. Hard to imagine how he'll follow it up.

I began this one at the Indigo Bookstore and walked away from it relatively unresponsive. The overview definitely charmed me but the book was a bit bland to start. It was difficult to get in to. Two loners with scars that run deep. They have very strong, seemingly immortal, feelings for each other but they have a hard time manifesting these emotions. A week later my curiosity brought me back. How does a recluse make it work?

Mattia and Alice have a love, a relationship that feels deficient. It's not overtly dramatic. They care for one another but don't have the hopefulness to do anything about it. A little defeated by their overwhelming pasts, they lack the enthusiasm to act out their desires. There's a stillness; an immobility that's quiet and tragic. It's shameful.

Of course, some of it sounded a little familiar. I could especially relate to Mattia using books as an escape from reality. Although new material excites me, at times, you can also use books to hide in. With your head between pages, you're not at the mercy of the real worlds whims and you're not obligated to converse. Yes, in that world of study, you can be quite safe from injury.

I won't give the ending away but I did put the book down with more questions than I had answers - Are people like this broken? Can they be fixed? Are they wrong for each other? Are some people meant to be alone? Can they work on it? Is there someone else for them? There's healing isn't there? Alas, even those of us that deny it to others have contemplated such notions. There's a theme that resonates with all of us searching for companionship.

It's a little sad but definitely a beautiful composition.

The Solitude of Prime Numbers packs a wallop. It seizes you by the throat in the first chapter and it never lets go. I found it to be an amazing portrait of two emotionally detached characters, one who "rejects the world" and the other who "is rejected by it."

The novel gets its title from mathematics; Paolo Giordano is a professional physicist. He writes, "Prime numbers are divisible only by 1 and by themselves. They hold their place in the infinite series of natural numbers, squashed, like all numbers, between two others, but one step further than the rest. They are suspicious, solitary numbers..."

Alice Della Rocca is forced by her callous father to take ski lessons when she is quite young; a ski accident leaves her with disfiguring scars, a noticeable limp, and an eventual fall into anorexia. Her counterpart, Mattia Balossino, briefly abandoned his mentally disabled twin sister to attend a party unencumbered by her "weirdness"; she disappears, leaving him with a great deal of trauma and a need to harm himself with blade and flame.

These two damaged individuals are unable to surmount the emotional wall they have raised up, but they do recognize a kindred spirit in the other. As they grow older, they attract warm-hearted and "normal" people to their orbit, but they can never truly reciprocate the emotions they evoke.

There are images that Giordano creates that quite literally cause the reader to gasp because of their power. Alice's attempt to flush a calorific meat-stuffed tomato down the toilet during a romantic first date or the cruelty exhibited to her by the "popular" girls... Mattia's attempt to fit in with his mathematical peers...all of this is eloquently written and beautifully detailed.

I'd be remiss if I didn't mention that this book is a translation from the Italian by the amazing Shaun Whiteside - one of the most fluent and flawless translations I've ever read. I've learned that a translator can make or break a book and I applaud him. Read this book - it's unlikely the images will fade from your mind anytime soon.

This story, which covers the years from 1983 to 2007, is about two lonely children with traumatic incidents in their past who grow into lonely, but linked adulthood. Alice Della Rocca is labelled a cripple as a consequence of a limp incurred during a skiing accident in childhood which broke her leg. Mattia Balossino is a twin whose twin sister Michela is developmentally disabled: `his brain seemed to be a perfect machine, in the same mysterious way that his sister's was so defective.' The twins are placed in the same class at school, where Mattia is constantly trying to protect Michela from the taunting and teasing of the other students. Mattia's parents force him to take Michela with him wherever he goes until one day on their way to a birthday party to which they have been invited; Mattia abandons Michela in a park. Michela is never seen again.

Mattia meets Alice at high school. Alice is attracted to Mattia, and tries to befriend him. `They had formed a defective and asymmetrical friendship made up of long absences and much silence, a clean and empty space where both could come back to breathe when the walls of the school became too close for them to ignore the feeling of suffocation.'
Mattia and Alice's teenage years are painful and awkward. Both have adopted self-harming behaviours, neither has another person to whom they are close. Alice does attempt to make friends with Viola and her group, and is finally cruelly rejected. Mattia sees himself and Alice as `twin primes', like 11 and 13, or 17 and 19. `close but not close enough to really touch each other - lonely individuals forever linked but separated.'

Their lives after high school diverge. Mattia goes to university, and then takes up a research position. Their lives become more complicated as they grow older. Alice marries and is then divorced. Mattia and Alice reconnect at times, but seem fated to get no closer to each other or to anyone else. Their friendship is neither romantic, nor detached.
In many ways, this is a harrowing story about two quite exceptional individuals who do not usually relate to others and are often quite unlikeable. And yet at times there are aspects of more usual teenaged angst which makes you wonder their solitariness could have been overcome - perhaps with different parenting and slightly different circumstances, and perhaps if each was smarter and less intelligent.

This is an accomplished first novel, which left me thinking about the story and its possible meanings long after I'd finished reading it.

Jennifer Cameron-Smith

Wow.

You know, I haven't run across much contemporary literature that renders me completely speechless after I put it down. This book is... wow.

Let me start with Alice. My heart broke reading just the beginning of her story. With sharp, clear writing Paolo Giordano gave description of places, of feelings, of fears and then he ripped my heart out with an event that tore Alice's life apart. It's important to remember that not all disorders begin with the "typical" traumatic experiences and Giordano gut-punched me with that reminder at the beginning of Alice's story.

And then there's Mattia. Sweet, smart Mattia. How could such a smart boy possibly go wrong? It's impossible not to empathize with him and understand his actions, his abuse toward himself. Over and over I felt my heart being wrung from the concern I felt, the desire to reach in to the pages of this book and just haul this character out of it and give him a hug.

The secondary characters in this book were powerful as well. Every character held so much intricate detail. My mind is spinning right now and all I can think is.. people need to read this book.

This book doesn't need me singing its praises. It stands firmly on its own two feet and is one of the most powerful, masterful debut books I've read.

"The Solitude of Prime Numbers" is absorbing and beautiful, almost overwhelmingly so. Although the characters are a little weird, if one were to meet people like them in real life, there is something sympathetic about each, even Viola, who is just pretty horrible. Author Paulo Giordano accomplishes this by giving the reader a little flicker into each character's inner thoughts by moving his limited-third-person from character to character just enough to give a little insight into each, although the main focus stays on the two main characters, Alice and Mattia. I think that's an incredibly difficult thing to do, to reveal and conceal just enough. Although much of this book's true action is emotional rather than physical action, there were many passages I read while forgetting to breathe. It's that good. Literally breathtaking.

I cannot say enough good about this novel. It is beautiful and intelligent, and leaves enough unanswered so the reader is left nearly as haunted as Alice and Mattia are. This is the book to buy and read if you're looking for a novel that will leave you feeling intellectually and artistically nourished. It will not waste your time by being ordinary. You will not be sorry, reading this novel.

This introspective novel pushes to explain the connection between two "oddball" misfits and emotionally involves the reader into their lives. Both main characters experience trauma at a young age that forever changes the way they view themselves and the outside world. It is this common difference that draws them to each other and creates a bond that can never be severed despite leading very different adult lives. A quietly explosive ending completes the novel in just the fashion it was started, as an intimate psychological portrait of two "prime numbers" - together alone and alone together.

In my opinion, Giordano's writing style added to the fascination I had with this book. His early character development established the tone of the novel and created the saddened environment which further induced the reader's empathy and pity. The toils, struggles and tribulations that Mattia and Alice faced were so seemingly different and yet evoked similar outcomes. Giordano cleverly wrote this book to play on the reader's feelings and self examination. His attention to detail draws the reader to compare himself to the characters and their situations described throughout each chapter. The interactions and non interactions between the protagonists leave the reader intertwined and connected page by page. A great book for the mathematical and logical minded while providing an entertaining read for those who prefer a venture into the human psyche.

The Solitude of Prime Numbers is a quiet but poignant coming of age story about two lonely misfits: Alice Della Rocca and Mattia Balossino. The story begins in 1983 and ends in 2007.

Alice is pushed by her overbearing father at a young age to become a world-class skier, but a serious skiing accident,in the Italian alps, leaves her scarred and with a permanent limp. She desperately wants to fit in, but she is taunted by other classmates, engages in self loathing behavior, and, as a result, detests her father for the life she seems faced with.

Mattia is a twin, while he is brilliant, his twin sister Michela is damaged: "his brain seemed to be a perfect machine, in the same mysterious way that his sisters was so defective". Despite this the twins are placed in the same class at school, and Mattia finds himself constantly trying to shelter his sister from the taunting and the laughter of other students. He is forced by his parents to take his sister everywhere. When an incident occurs for which Mattia feels responsible, his life becomes full of guilt, and self loathing behavior as well. In high school he is sent to a new school, and the teachers are not sure how to handle the gifted, but socially withdrawn Mattia.

Alice tries to befriend Mattia, and is attracted to him. When she learns that he is a genius, she asks him if he likes to study. His reply is: "It's the only thing I know how to do." (He wanted to tell her that he liked to study because you can do it alone, because all the things you study are already dead, cold and chewed over). Needless to say, for Alice and Mattia the high school years had further scarred these two individuals who felt rejected by the world. "They had formed a defective and asymmetrical friendship, made up of long absences and much silence, a clean and empty space where both could come back to breathe when the walls of the school became too close for them to ignore the feeling of suffocation."

Taking separate paths after high school, Mattia, a brilliant mathematician, goes off to the university. The two reconnect off and on. Mattia summed it all up by saying he and Alice were "twin primes" alone and lost, "close but not close enough to really touch each other ---lonely individuals forever linked but separated."

MY THOUGHTS -- I loved this book. Not only is a debut novel, written by a physicist, it was first written in Italian, and beautifully translated to English. The story is told in short, alternating chapters, and it drew me in from the very first page. The characters are damaged and sympathetic. It is a beautiful story which shows just how a traumatic childhood can scar us for life. It's a story of missed opportunities, and one that I will not easily forget. The ending surprised me, and I look forward to more books by this talented author. READ THIS BOOK!

Read "Like Family" first and enjoyed it more than "Solitude of Prime Numbers" but I think that is because the characters are mature in "Like Family" and as a "mature" (older) reader, the story resonated more. "Solitude" is extremely unique and quizzical, the writing is flawless. The characters are like no one I have ever read before.

I started out liking this book and wanting to know more about the main characters and how they come to a resolution with their issues but, it never fully gets there. The main characters are each trapped in their sad past and in one final chapter they come to realize how precious life is. It is very well written but, lacked development. Fell short.

I wanted so much for this story about two damaged souls to take an upward turn. But ultimately this book reveals the pervasiveness of childhood trauma and the difficulty we have in being other than who we are. While not necessarily a happy ending, it was a realistic one. I agree with other reviewers - I did not fall in love with the characters. Yet they are forgivable because they are so very human in their imperfection and pathology. Unless you are one of the rare people in the world who grew up with a full complement of self-assurance, was never teased, and never suffered an awkward moment trying to "fit in", this book will strike a chord on some level. This is a good book by a talented writer (aided by a good translator). I look forward to more from this author - though maybe a somewhat lighter subject next time.

CAUTION: THIS REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS!!!!!!!

I really loved this book, although I did not always like the characters. Alice, in particular, left me feeling disgusted at times, starting from the fact that she would purposely wet her pants while skiing, and going on to her anorexia, her attempt to flush food down the toilet during a romantic dinner date, and her overwhelming self-absorption during the second half of the novel. Mattia, by contrast, was quite an endearing character, and I found it painful to read about his difficulties in relating and communicating, since I really wanted him (if not Alice) to find his way to a happy ending.

The one thing that bothered me about the book was how fragmented it was. The writing is absolutely top-notch; however, the story is told in snapshots from different periods of the main characters' lives, with a lot of the intervening details left to the reader's imagination. I desperately wanted to know what brought on Alice's illness (food poisoning? stress?) that eventually led to her skiing accident, as well as what happened to Mattia's family during the search for his sister. I was never quite sure what exactly was wrong with Alice's leg, or where the scar came from. I wanted to know how she was rescued. I wanted to know what happened between the tomato incident and her wedding and what would have possessed Fabio to marry her. Additionally, I was bothered by the fact that Alice's anorexia went on for so long - it seemed like at some point she would have had to be hospitalized and treated, especially if her husband was a doctor - otherwise she probably would not have lasted as long as she did. I was also confused by Mattia's condition. It seemed very clear to me that he suffered from Asperger's Syndrome, though this was never directly acknowledged, and the symptoms were not evident before the disappearance of his sister. It bothered me to think that he would go his entire life without being diagnosed. It was as if these two characters were not only withdrawn from the world, but also invisible to those around them to the point where major issues like anorexia and Asperger's would go unnoticed for a good 25 years, and that just didn't ring true to me given that they did have people in their lives who cared about them. I am not sure why the author couldn't have shed a little more light on these plot points and character traits.

On the whole, however, this book was highly readable, and intellectual without being at all pretentious. Like its characters, it's unassuming and introverted. Ultimately, I was left with the feeling that I was almost connected to the characters, but not quite - and in the end, walking away from the book and feeling that way is what finally made me understand the characters and their inability to connect.

Take two special education kids, a boy and a girl. One is a cutter and may have Asperger's syndrome. Both are loners who are socially challenged and basically misfits. Romance is a rocky road for normal couples. Magnify those bumps in the road by the handicaps that these two individuals deal with and you have a relationship that is exponentially difficult to pull off. That's basically the plot of this book. Just as they never get their individual lives together, they can never get their romance together, even though it looks like they were made for each other. The two characters orbit each other as they go through life without ever really connecting. They are unique, like the mathematical concept of prime numbers, perhaps destined never to break out of their solitude. The book, well worth a read, is translated from the Italian. At age 28, the author won Italy's Strega literary award for this work, the youngest author to do so.

Alice and Mattia each seem alone, isolated from others by the inner pain that quietly eats away at them. The loss of his twin, a loss for which he feels responsible, puts Mattia at odds with the world outside himself. Before the loss of his twin, Mattia was gifted mathematically, but now numbers become his refuge as well. Alice dreads the skiing, a sport her father encourages. Each trip, she prepares herself with a ritual so that she will not be embarrassed in front of the other kids, but one day her embarrassment causes her to escape the group rather than rely on them. While fleeing the group, Alice has a skiing accident that leaves her with permanent scars. Both Mattia and Alice live in worlds alienated from their teenage peers but their shared isolation brings them together. When Mattia accepts a research position, the two become separated. Mattia later returns, but will their friendship connect them like it once did? Time changes friendship, alienation and the inner solitude, yet the essential elements, though transformed, remain.

In his brilliant debut novel THE SOLITUDE OF PRIME NUMBERS, Paolo Giodino captures the pain and alienation of adolescence. Although most individual readers probably have not experienced the exact circumstances or psychological manifestations of the characters, Paolo Giodino creates characters with whom readers can relate in the initial pages with his vivid descriptions of the adolescent social structure and the insecurities of those that do not fit within the popular group. As the novel progresses, revealing the depth of their solitude and pain, one experiences their pain and isolation from an insider's point of view rather than as someone looking in from the outside. One wants them to succeed. One wants them to break through their isolation and find wholeness and yet we, as readers, like Alice and Mattia, can never truly be the insider into another. "A prime number can only be divided by itself or by one --- it never truly fits with another." Will these lost, troubled souls ever truly connect?

THE SOLITUDE OF PRIME NUMBERS is a stunning, unforgettable novel with unforgettable characters that uses mathematical language to create a poetic view of solitude and friendship, of isolation and human closeness. Paolo Giodino draws the reader into the pain and tragedy experienced by his characters, not with psychological buzzwords and diagnosis details about anorexia or any of the other manifestations but rather by making the reader feel the psychological and poetic truth within his characters. If you are looking for a happy, feel-good novel, look elsewhere. If, on the other hand, you are looking for a novel that will make you feel, see and think in new ways, THE SOLITUDE OF PRIME NUMBERS is a novel that stands out among many for its vision of the misfit's inner pain, alienation, closeness and solitude. Despite the tragic events and emotions surrounding the characters, THE SOLITUDE OF PRIME NUMBERS has a poetic beauty about it that lives on long after the last page.

I found myself checking the author bio quite often -- what? 27? Debut novel? Physicist? Wow, I feel so inadequate. This novel contains so much insight into human life -- the effects of early childhood trauma, peer pressure, societal pressure, trying to forge meaningful connections, shame, guilt, self-mutilation, finding a safe haven, meeting (and not meeting) expectations, searching for peace, etc. And it does so without too much explanation, just by showing. Kind of like the way a mathematician breaks down a long equation into a simple one. My only argument is that it's not just a select few of us -- everyone feels separate at one time or another, and no matter how close you get to other people you can never really know them. The difference is that the "prime numbers" among us are honest enough to recognize this while others choose to deny it, like actors on a stage.
I wondered what it would be like to read this in Italian -- even though the translation was pretty good, there was some repetition (of the same word in one paragraph) which bothered me.
Fantastic novel, highly recommended.

I thoroughly enjoyed reading this book. Personally, it was the best read I've picked up since The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao. It is a bit of a sad story, but anyone who's ever felt awkward or made uncomfortable mistakes in relationships will identify in some way with pieces of the characters and their shattered lives. I found myself trying to root for the characters, but this isn't a fairy tale-type story. I appreciate that sense of reality. The language and the descriptions are outstanding in my opinion as well. I do recommend this book.

This was an amazing book. Each character had his or her own struggle, his or her own "skeleton in the closet" that made that person unique and intriguing to read. Even though the book is entitled "The Solitude of Prime Numbers," you learn how everyone is connected, even if some may want to be separated from society.

SPOILER ALERT:
One thing I didn't like, or understand, was why didn't Alice just tell Mattia that she thinks she MIGHT have seen his sister Michela? Was she afraid he'd be devastated if she was wrong? Was she afraid he'd say, "I abandoned her, I don't WANT to see her"? It just seems to me there was that chance for hope, and Alice didn't take it. Of course, I know, however, that I shouldn't judge, as I may be in the same situation some day and freeze when I have something important to share.

After reading Paolo Giordano's debut novel, The Solitude of Prime Numbers (translated from the Italian by Shuan Whiteside), I am once again struck by the perfidy of fate. Paolo Giordano, in his first novel, and at the tender age of 27, demonstrates an uncanny understanding of the human mind, the human soul, and the relationships that form the basis for the social [or anti-social] being. He writes with unerring certainty about what to say, and how and when to say it. It just doesn't seem fair that this sort of craftsmanship by a first-time author is produced by someone who is also a candidate for a doctorate in particle physics, is remarkably good looking, and on top of that, is Italian! Ah fate, cruel fate; did you think it enough you made me Italian?

Mattia and Alice are adrift in high school, two misfits set apart. Mattia is a gifted but troubled boy who feels uncomfortable in his skin and prefers his studies to human company. He's haunted by the death of his twin sister years ago, and he has a compulsion for self-harm. Alice's leg was disfigured in a skiing accident as a child, and this further isolated the already awkward girl. She's become a frustrated young woman who struggling with anorexia. Though Mattia shuns society while Alice is shunned by it, they understand each other as only two outcasts can. But Mattia is aloof even with Alice. While she tries to get closer, he pushes away, and their relationship is strained. Even so, they remain friends through their high school and college years, until Mattia is offered a prestigious grant at an overseas university. What will become of these two when they're forced to separate?

The story here is nothing out of the ordinary, but it's interesting and well-paced. The characters are what make this book. They're flawed, to be sure, both selfish and self-destructive. But there're also complex and believable; I was really able to get inside their heads. Mattia seems to have Asperger's syndrome, and the way Giordano describes his mindset is realistic. Mattia is always thinking of physics and mathematics. He loves order. He feels there's something unnatural about himself, something that sets him apart from other people, and he feels uncomfortable in his own skin. Alice is more similar to her peers by comparison, but she's still a loner. She desperately wants to be liked and to fit in. I was touched by the awkward but tender relationship between these two.

I liked the minor characters, too, and I was especially impressed by the way Giordano depicted Mattia and Alice's family lives. The parents here aren't uncaring, they just don't know how to deal with their children. The passivity that affects the family relationships here is similar to that which damages Mattia and Alice's friendship.

I loved the themes of loneliness and togetherness, and of the "weight of consequences". Mattia and Alice can't quite connect, but find shelter in each other nonetheless. I thought this was so poignant. And Giordano realistically shows the way the complacency and words left unsaid can come between people. His characters come to understand the results of their actions (or lack there of) in a realistic way.

This is a beautifully written book. I am not one to be impressed by big words and fancy sentences, but Giordano's prose is poetic. It has a melancholic tone appropriate for the subject. It's flowing, and there's so much interesting imagery and metaphors. The way Mattia compares himself and Alice to prime numbers is especially evocative. The narrative is in the third person, focusing on Mattia and Alice's point of view. Other characters' perspectives do come into it, though, and I thought this was an interesting choice.

I really only had a few problems with this book. The first is more a problem with the cover blurb than the actual book. Mattia and Alice don't separate until about half-way through, and they're not reuinted until almost the end. The thing that reunites them ends up being a little disappointing. Also, some readers may find it angsty, though I thought the characters' attitudes were appropirate given their circumstances. Mattia and Alice are often immature, but the adversity they face made it easier to forgive them.

Dark and poetic, "The Solitude of Prime Numbers" is a book for anyone who's ever felt like an outsider. It's one I'll remember for a long time to come.

After reading Paolo Giordano's debut novel, The Solitude of Prime Numbers (translated from the Italian by Shuan Whiteside), I am once again struck by the perfidy of fate. Paolo Giordano, in his first novel, and at the tender age of 27, demonstrates an uncanny understanding of the human mind, the human soul, and the relationships that form the basis for the social [or anti-social] being. He writes with unerring certainty about what to say, and how and when to say it. It just doesn't seem fair that this sort of craftsmanship by a first-time author is produced by someone who is also a candidate for a doctorate in particle physics, is remarkably good looking, and on top of that, is Italian! Ah fate, cruel fate; did you think it enough you made me Italian?

Mattia and Alice are adrift in high school, two misfits set apart. Mattia is a gifted but troubled boy who feels uncomfortable in his skin and prefers his studies to human company. He's haunted by the death of his twin sister years ago, and he has a compulsion for self-harm. Alice's leg was disfigured in a skiing accident as a child, and this further isolated the already awkward girl. She's become a frustrated young woman who struggling with anorexia. Though Mattia shuns society while Alice is shunned by it, they understand each other as only two outcasts can. But Mattia is aloof even with Alice. While she tries to get closer, he pushes away, and their relationship is strained. Even so, they remain friends through their high school and college years, until Mattia is offered a prestigious grant at an overseas university. What will become of these two when they're forced to separate?

The story here is nothing out of the ordinary, but it's interesting and well-paced. The characters are what make this book. They're flawed, to be sure, both selfish and self-destructive. But there're also complex and believable; I was really able to get inside their heads. Mattia seems to have Asperger's syndrome, and the way Giordano describes his mindset is realistic. Mattia is always thinking of physics and mathematics. He loves order. He feels there's something unnatural about himself, something that sets him apart from other people, and he feels uncomfortable in his own skin. Alice is more similar to her peers by comparison, but she's still a loner. She desperately wants to be liked and to fit in. I was touched by the awkward but tender relationship between these two.

I liked the minor characters, too, and I was especially impressed by the way Giordano depicted Mattia and Alice's family lives. The parents here aren't uncaring, they just don't know how to deal with their children. The passivity that affects the family relationships here is similar to that which damages Mattia and Alice's friendship.

I loved the themes of loneliness and togetherness, and of the "weight of consequences". Mattia and Alice can't quite connect, but find shelter in each other nonetheless. I thought this was so poignant. And Giordano realistically shows the way the complacency and words left unsaid can come between people. His characters come to understand the results of their actions (or lack there of) in a realistic way.

This is a beautifully written book. I am not one to be impressed by big words and fancy sentences, but Giordano's prose is poetic. It has a melancholic tone appropriate for the subject. It's flowing, and there's so much interesting imagery and metaphors. The way Mattia compares himself and Alice to prime numbers is especially evocative. The narrative is in the third person, focusing on Mattia and Alice's point of view. Other characters' perspectives do come into it, though, and I thought this was an interesting choice.

I really only had a few problems with this book. The first is more a problem with the cover blurb than the actual book. Mattia and Alice don't separate until about half-way through, and they're not reuinted until almost the end. The thing that reunites them ends up being a little disappointing. Also, some readers may find it angsty, though I thought the characters' attitudes were appropirate given their circumstances. Mattia and Alice are often immature, but the adversity they face made it easier to forgive them.

Dark and poetic, "The Solitude of Prime Numbers" is a book for anyone who's ever felt like an outsider. It's one I'll remember for a long time to come.

I really enjoyed this book.

The story revolves around the lives of two characters, both social misfits, and damaged ones at that. They have trouble relating to the world around them, and to each other, but their mutual attraction makes them soldier on.

I don't want to post any spoilers, but I will say that the story is well written, compelling reading. I would highly recommend it.

Five stars.

I thought this book would be interesting, but it has not kept my attention. I ended up reading it just to finish it, not because I was enjoying it.

The concept is intriguing, two sort-of misfits, awkward as many brilliant teens are. But I didn't think the story flowed as well as it should have.

I waited almost two years to review this book because I kept thinking it would eventually grow on me, or that I would go back and read it, and love it. I see that many others have enjoyed it, but know that not everyone enjoys the same things. My advice would be to pick it up if it seems appealing to you.

I completely enjoyed this story of awkward people and their missteps. I found the story very well written and although the characters are not classically "lovable", they feel very human and lovable in the way that we love friends and family along with their flaws. I am a bit of a geek, which probably helped me relate to the characters in the story, but I really loved this book.

Clever title. Beautiful symmetric analogies unraveling in the first few pages describing the nature of the two main characters.
Smart calculations around the plot. But all in all a book about how an emotional trauma can turn to a physical and a physical one can cripple someone emotionally. But unfortunately by lacking ANY spontaneous element from the core theme of the book.
I am sorry to say that but the characters were portrayed poorly. They never grow within the book or somehow evolve.
Their sorrow lays still in an unnatural stability for ever and ever. They remain eternally bullied teens buried in guilt reaping themselves off in any chance appeared - and they are many chances within this book.
As nothing changes through the pages and our dear Matthias and Alishe continue living inside their egocentric bubble of an eternal emotional childhood mentally masturbating in thoughts without actions.
I hopelessly turned from page to page looking for a sparkle of evolution that never came.
I was not looking for a Hollywood ending but some twists and turns within the characters could make the pages less heavier to turn...
In a few words?
After 40 pages this otherwise beautifully written book is getting tremendously boring... Starting with great potential but eventually drowned by its own stiffness.

ps: Heavily influenced by "The lovers of arctic circle" ....

I have just finished reading the Brazilian version of this book. It is sensational. I agree with the previous reviewer from Amsterdam, that this is one of the best books I have read lately. Paolo Giordano was able to write a novel that I couldn't put down. He shows us the history of two people, from childhood to young adulthood. Like all of us, these characters have emotional bruises from different events in their early lives, bruises they carry through their teens. At this time, these characters' psychological inabilities are exploited by their peers, who condition social acceptance according to each one's weaknesses. Finally as young adults we see these walking wounded, as it were, coming to terms with their difficulties in social circumstances, and accepting as much as possible their own limitations. Each finally embarks into their own destiny. This is a book about solitude and the need for companionship. It is about love. It is about reaching out or not to your friends, to your equals. We sit as witnesses of a search for love, for self acceptance, and finally we end up also accepting each character's self imposed punishment, which through the book caused great affliction, at least to this reader. It is a great story. Five stars.

As the wonderful title and the beautiful cover suggest, the metaphor of two solitary prime numbers to describe the journeys of two scarred people is extremely efficient. The experience of reading this book was satisfying to both intellect and emotion, writing style is calm but the effect is long lasting and although painful, it ends beautifully, leaving poweful images.

Paolo Giordiano's THE SOLITUDE OF PRIME NUMBERS is a well-written book about suffering, but it is so unrelenting in its spare, visceral depiction of damaged people that one finds it difficult to read. The main characters, Mattia, a young man finding it difficult to interact with people after a selfish act as a child, and Alice, a young woman whose suspicions of relationships stem from a childhood skiing accident, find some consolation in each other, but surrounded by disfunctional family members, haunted by youthful trauma, and unsuited for the development of stable relationships, they find only brief instances of content. Reading this novel feels like dwelling on their misery.

There are some exceptional passages in the work. I find the opening chapters, which explain the foundation of Mattia's and Alice's problems, taut, nuanced, and engaging. I also think a later chapter, where Alice avenges herself on a high school nemesis while working as a photographer, offers a solid character study. Notably, these better sections have more to do with the main characters' having to deal with more than one other person. Alone, they seem at best vacant and at worst a cause for pity.

For context, I do not always look for happy endings, and I have seen creative works about sadness and pain that have transcendant characteristics. Some passages in this novel have such characteristics, but as a whole the novel dwells on misery and the intentional infliction of cruelty.

THE SOLITUDE OF PRIME NUMBERS opens in the childhoods of an Italian girl and boy, Alice and Mattia, where separate traumatic incidents alter their lives. Isolation is a factor in the incidents, and is such a continuing fact in their lives that Mattia likens himself to a prime number and, after he and Alice meet in adolescence, refers to them together as twin primes -- "pairs of prime numbers that are close to each other, almost neighbors, but between them there is always an even number that prevents them from truly touching." The spare narration beautifully evokes their introversion (even autism) and as they grow into adulthood and careers of photography and mathematics, the throughline remains: is solitude their destiny?

Though the setting is modern-day Italy, I was disappointed that there is little sense of place -- country or culture. Otherwise, it's a lovely (though melancholy) and insightful novel with an ending I found wholly satisfying.

Paolo Giordano's lovely book, The Solitude of Prime Numbers, deals with heavy subjects such as guilt, grief and loss, yet manages to move along as though riding a breeze, its lyrical prose and minimum of dialog giving it a lightness of being. The fact that this beautiful work of art was written by a man of science (Giordano is a particle physicist) only serves to prove the complexity of humans.

Mattia and Alice are two broken people, spiritually and -- in Alice's case -- physically. Mattia suffers such intense guilt over an incident in his childhood, that he spends the rest of his life trying as hard as possible to disappear. Alice, who becomes partially cripped after an accident as a child, is also trying to disappear and becomes anorexic in her attempts. Both are fragile and lost, but when they find each other during high school, they are able to be fragile and lost together.

This is a quiet book, one driven by its characters rather than by plot (essentially the definition of literature). It's a very internal story, as we spend most of it simply following along as Mattia and Alice live their respective lives both together and apart, learning how to be a part of the world, instead of just observing it. There's no great action to be found, no major drama -- just two lives, intertwined. And it's beautiful, mostly.

It should be noted that this is the English translation from the original Italian text. I don't speak Italian, but the English version read extremely well, and I applaud the translator for doing such a wonderful job.

This book is literally incredible. I dislike how high the shipping prices are for how inexpensive the books are, but alas, this book was in great condition and shot right up on my favorites list. You won't be disappointed.

The story covers the years 1983-2007. Alice and Mattia are the protagonists of this novel. They share a wounded outlook on life and a tendency to turn inward. Readers are introduced to 8-year-old Alice on the ski slopes in 1983 when she tries to get out of skiing to the point where she injures her leg, which results in a lifetime injury.

Mattia is introduced in the next chapter, which commences in 1984. A gifted boy with Asperger's who is brilliant at mathematics has a twin sister Michela, who is developmentally disabled. When the twins are 8, another child invites them to his birthday party. Mattia, ashamed of Michela tells her to wait in a nearby park until after the party. When he returns for her, she is gone and her fate remains unknown.

Neither family is much for communciation. Alice and her father are like two circling satellites whose orbits never cross; Mattia, by now an only child had nobody in his home in whom to confide. He has also taken up the very alarming behavior of self-injury, namely cutting.

In 1991 these two prime numbers meet and are instantly drawn to one another. Mattia keeps things personal at bay by viewing the world as a series of mathematical equations to be solved. He is an excellent example of a gifted and believable character who has Asperger's.

Alice is anorexic, a condition that follows her throughout the book. She is harming herself as well, but in a completely different way. Each time these two tragic characters try to connect with each other, their fates remain star-crossed.

Mattia describes them as prime numbers because a prime number is a number that cannot be divided by any number but itself. They are both like parallel lines, the lines that run alongside of one another but never touch.

This book is a very sad story of these two characters, both of whom can at best be called tragic figures. Alice tries to worm her way into a popular clique by getting a tattoo honoring the girl she admires; the girl, Viola turns out to be a spoiled, selfish girl with a sense of entitlement and a tendency to take her sister's experiences and make them hers. She embroiders an elaborate fantasy life for herself and when she and Alice cross paths again in 2003, Alice has a clever plan for revenge that makes you want to cheer.

Mattia is a rising academic star. He and Alice, who would later marry and divorce a doctor continue to have close encounters. Like a double star, they are so close they appear to be touching, but they don't quite make it. Like a pair of comets, they crash and burn repeatedly. The saddest part of this story is that neither one of these prime numbers/parallel lines ever seemed to communicate with anyone in their families.

While I was not overly fond of Alice or Mattia, Paolo Giordano is to be commended for his brilliant writing style. A physicist, he communicates through mathematics beautifully and that is what keeps the story in place.

Evoking intimate feelings with the gorgeous/harsh language of math and science, I loved this book until I stopped stunned at the last few pages, where I didn't necessarily need a happy ending but wished that these two odd but yet still so human spirits could have broken free of the chains, real or imagined, and could find each other and touch, at last, so 11+13 could be 24 and 17+19 could be pregnant with so many little bits of joy in 36... made me think very hard about the nature of solitude when it's just a shield for one excuse or another...

I really enjoyed the mathematical premises of this book and initially found their application to the plot and the characters to be quite clever. However, this one high point of the novel became tiresome and was certainly insufficient to carry the whole story. Overall, I found the story to be pretentious, juvenile and mostly uninteresting. The characters left me cold and I did not really care about them. Yes, it was unfortunate that they suffered terrible tragedies as children but it was very difficult to get into the story after those first few chapters. I stopped reading it a couple of times and then came back and finally finished it because I read that it had won awards and had been translated into thirty languages. I am baffled by its success.

I thought this was an absolutely amazing book. I couldn't put it down. The main characters were haunting and beautiful. There were points where I really didn't like Alice, but by the end I really ended up liking her. Mattia was fascinating, especially the inner workings of his mind. A lot of the minor characters were really interesting to me as well, especially Fabio, Nadia, and Crozza.

I would definitely recommend this book to someone who likes not necessarily happy stories, but introspective glimpses into people's lives and what makes them who they are. While I was reading, sometimes I would wonder why the incidents that happened when Alice and Mattia were children affected them so much, but I think it was more their personality than the incident. It would have affected different people in different ways, maybe not as strongly.

I was completely intrigued by the name of this book and thought it was something I could really get into. The first couple chapters were promising as we learned a lot of important things about the main characters' young lives. But then, as Alice and Mattia grew older, I started to dislike them more and more. OK, they had traumatic things happen in their childhoods; get over it! I found myself annoyed by their actions and inability to do anything.

I did really enjoy the overall theme of the book and thought it tied together nicely. The writing is good and most everything is there- I just didn't like the characters and that caused me to like the book less than I would have otherwise.

A pretentious read which cannot be saved by inserting some mathematical concepts: they don't make it any deeper! The friendship between Alice and Mattia is highly unbelievable, the note that makes Mattia return home is a desperate search for a denouement of sorts which fails miserably since nothing happens; we are told that Alice has realised that they have both changed and that therefore there is no hope of any continuation of their relationship but as readers we are left wondering bout the plausibility of it all. The scenes between Fabio and Alice are painfully inadequate: how long can a doctor live with an anorexic girl before seeking professional help? and how natural is it for a mother who has not seen her son for nine years to continue her siesta when he shows up in the house, as Mattia's mother does? Fortunately I have not spent much time on this book, which another reviewer characterised as 'a prime waste of time'!

This was a beautifully written story about lovely people, and I loved the math references and analogies. Just utterly great prose, and characterization. I loved it from the first sentence until the last.

I had never heard of this author but was immediately drawn into the story line which affects me personally since I suffered from anorexia. I think this a very important book about a disturbing and difficult subject.

I just finished the book last night and read many reviews right after it. I am baffled by all those 5-stars!

I saw the book in Vancouver and loved the title and the start of the book. Got the book when I came back to California and read through it within two weeks or so. I am baffled by people giving 5-star because of this is author's first book! This is a book review and not an author review. Indeed, he has writing talent but this book's story was flat. Too much and too much useless descriptions. Unnecessary detailed descriptions of events. It was just too much. Lastly, I read the last chapter, some three pages, twice to make sure I have not missed anything!

Characters were too detailed but stories between them was falling pretty flat. The time travel, from age 5 to age nearly 30, was poorly done. The author has talent describing events and details but with time, he didn't convince me.

All in all, it was an easy read but I wouldn't recommend this book. If it wasn't for the title...