Review: The Solitude of Prime Numbers - Paolo Giordano

Genre: Fiction
Pages: 288
Published: 2010 (2008)

A prime number is inherently a solitary thing: it can only be divided by itself, or by one: it never truly fits with another. Alice and Mattia, too, move on their own axis, alone with their personal tragedies. As a child, Alice’s overbearing father drove her first to a terrible skiing accident, and then to anorexia. When she meets Mattia she recognizes a kindred, tortured spirit, and Mattia reveals to Alice his terrible secret: that as a boy he abandoned his mentally-disabled twin sister in a park to go to a party, and when he returned, she was nowhere to be found.

These two irreversible episodes mark Alice and Mattia’s lives for ever, and as they grow into adulthood their destinies seem intertwined: they are divisible only by themselves and each other.

A meditation on loneliness and love, The Solitude of Prime Numbers asks, can we ever truly be whole when we’re in love with another.

I am gonna do a quickie cos my head is filled with thoughts about this book. I could sure go on forever if no one stopped me.

So  I am going with the formula used by Staci @Life in The Thumb and it was invented by..?

About:

Mattia had a disabled sister, and he got angry with her one day and left her in the park when they were 8. They never found her and this has haunted him, he puller away from everyone and got lost in maths. Then he meet Alice who survived a horrible ski accident, and no limps, and has become anorectic. Two unlikely people form a friendship, and there is a longing that never  is touched upon.

Descriptive Words: Mathematics,  awkward, friendship, anorexia, tragedy, loneliness

Location or characters you met:

Italy - I didn't learn a lot about Italy, it was just a place where the story took place.

Mattia -  Had he aspbergers? There was the maths, the social aspect, it fits. I liked him and felt sorry for him. He cut himself, he was sad. He was lost.

Alice - She starved herself, and had big issues of her own. That's why she fitted so well with him

What worked for me:
The book was wonderful! I meant to only see if it was good and suddenly I was a page 70. He is a marvellous author and this book was just lovely.
 

What didn't work for me:

I guess I had wanted a bit more clarity at the end.
 

Recommend?

YES! Do read this book.

Reason for reading: Recommened by a friend

Cover Thoughts: meh