The Solitude of Prime Numbers

This debut novel by a young Italian physicist is a striking and unusual twin-portrait of two lost and lonely young people finding their way through a hostile world. Both have had their lives irrevocably changed by childhood tragedies. Alice was seven years old when, pushed too hard by her domineering father, she fell in a severe downhill skiing accident, leaving her with disfiguring scars and a pronounced limp. Mattia was eight when he abandoned his developmentally disabled twin sister in a park on the way to a birthday party; she was never seen again, presumed to have drowned in the nearby river. Both of them have made it to adolescence with a slew of alarming self-destructive behaviors and a pronounced inability to relate with other show more people on a personal level. Their mutual isolation makes them a perfect pair of “twin primes,” inseparable but never able to fully understand or comfort each other.

Giordano’s novel takes us through the first three decades of Alice and Mattia’s lives in brief glimpses with enormous generosity and compassion. They are both so fully realized that even though neither of them seems quite human, it is impossible not to feel empathy for them as they stumble again and again over obstacles that the rest of the world is somehow able to breeze past. This is, in the end, a coming of age novel full of humor and wisdom; it surprised me at every turn with its clear insights into human behavior and relationships, and is unlike anything I’ve ever read. show less

Hay libros que estimulan la imaginación, libros que se basan en una trama apasionante, llena de viajes a lugares exóticos o de historias fabulosas, que te permiten pasarlo bien durante un rato, que te ayudan a evadirte del mundo mientras estás imbuido en ellos. Y después están los libros de personajes como es el caso de Paolo Giordano y 'La soledad de los números primos'. Como bien reza la contraportada, "Todo el mundo reconocerá algo de sí mismo en el libro de Giordano, pues el verdadero protagonista de esta maravillosa historia es la soledad." Todo el libro rezuma soledad y nostalgia en cada una de sus páginas. A pesar de la juventud de Giordano y de ser su primera novela, ha escrito una obra de una gran madurez. La única show more pega que le pondría sería que a veces mezcla las voces que llevan la historia, pero eso es lo de menos. Es una gran novela. ¿Por qué? Por la sencilla razón de que me interesa lo que me está contando, y de que los personajes me son muy cercanos y me identifico con algunas de las situaciones y pensamientos. Siempre me acompañarán. show less

Alice is an anorexic rich girl. Mattia is a mathematical genius who is carrying around a guilty secret. Neither has been successful at forming bonds with other human beings, and both of them have scars, both literal and figurative, that the rest of the world actively ignores. But maybe they could truly connect with each other, if they'd ever let themselves.

OK, that sort of makes it sound like it might be a cheesy romance. It's really, really not. In fact, I found it rather painful to read, not so much because it contains bullying and self-harm and other disturbing and depressing subjects, but because I so badly wanted to reach through the pages and smack both of them until they made different choices, said what they were thinking, and show more started treating themselves better. But it was mostly the good kind of pain, and the "Aargh, I care about these characters and they keep making me suffer with them!" kind of wanting to smack them, not the, "Aargh, the author has made these characters too annoying and stupid!" kind.

The writing is very good, even in translation: simple and understated and rather compelling. There is, perhaps, something that feels slightly artificial in how pure these characters are in their isolation and their damage, if that makes sense. But I think there's also something that feels true in it, anyway, so that ultimately, it works. I'm not entirely sure about the ending, which had just enough ambiguity to leave me mildly troubled, but in principle, at least, I think it's probably better than any of the possible endings I was imagining. show less

I don't know what it was about this book that made it so difficult to read. I must have picked it up and put it down a hundred times before I finally got to the last page. It wasn't that it was a horribly written book. In fact, just the opposite. It was so beautiful in a haunting, painful way that I could only read it in short bursts.

Alice and Mattia are two misfit loners who accidentally find each other as teenagers at a birthday party. Despite the fact they are thrown together on a malicious dare, they develop a bond of solidarity. To quote Pink Floyd, they were "two lost souls swimming in a fish bowl" recognizing the loneliness in each other. Except, their friendship does not develop as one normally would. They remain just as show more singular (primary, as the title suggests) as if they had never met. show less

This book explores the friendship between two young Italian children, each of whom feels is a misfit in society. Both have a distinctive "outsider's" way of looking at the world and either might be identified as autistic.

Mattia is a math wiz, unable to connect with family or peers, living with deep psychological damage and guilt following a childhood tragedy. Alice, teased and ostracized by peers and living with a physical disability, takes revenge on herself through anorexia. Yet somehow, Mattia and Alice find some comfort from each other that they can find no where else.

The book takes place between the years 1983 - 2007, offering a series of snapshots or glimpses every few years into the lives of these two friends. From childhood, show more through adolescence, and into adulthood we watch the ways Alice and Mattia cope with what others perceive as limitations.

Despite the fact that this is an international bestseller, I felt a distance from the characters that kept me from being fully emotionally involved with either. Perhaps that was intentional, a way for the author to more fully illustrate the solitude of being different. It's quite a sad book and there are no happy endings. But it does provide insight into a world I knew little about. One that I feel I understand better now, having read this book. show less

Audio book performed by Luke Daniels

From chapter 21: Mattia had learned that, among prime numbers, there are some that are even more special. Mathematicians call them 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, like 17 and 19, 41 and 43. If you have the patience to go on counting, you discover that these pairs gradually become rarer. You encounter increasingly isolated primes lost in that silent, measured space made only of ciphers, and you develop a distressing presentiment that the pairs encountered up until that point were accidental, that solitude is the true destiny. Then, just when show more you’re about to surrender, when you no longer have the desire to go on counting, you come across another pair of twins, clutching each other tightly.”
Alice Della Rocca and Mattia Balossino are the solitary primes of this beautifully written novel. The story begins in 1983 with Alice, forced to take ski lessons by her attorney father. The narrative skips to 1984 and twins Mattia and Michaela; Mattia is always charged with “look after your sister,” because Michaela is clearly not able to look after herself. These two chapters provide key incidents that lead to Alice and Mattia’s increasing solitude. But they will meet in high school and like rare twin primes they will cling to one another, though never quite touching.

Giordano writes with such elegance about the landscape of loneliness, the need for love and acceptance. This is an intimate study of the psychology of two damaged characters. Both Mattia and Alice lack the strength to truly connect to someone else, yet have the strength to live alone and isolated. Their steps toward one another are halting and even excruciatingly difficult, making the reader almost as anxious as the characters. Like real life, the ending is ambiguous, but oh, how I want to know what happens to these two people.

Luke Daniels does a wonderful job narrating the audio version. His nuanced performance is both gentle and harsh, quiet and panicked, tender and mean. show less

Prime numbers are only divisible by themselves. And by 1. They are lonely, lonely numbers. There is, however, one interesting quirk about them. They occasionally come in pairs, separated by a single number in between, always within reach of each other but forever kept apart by that middle number.

Mattia and Alice are prime numbers. Mattia is a mathematical genius who, after a tragic incident during his childhood, developed a habit of self-mutilation, usually involving cutting his hands. Alice suffered a traumatic injury as a child leaving her with a 'crippled' leg, and now struggles with anorexia and the ridicule of her peers. Their solitude is heartbreaking, and it's made all the worse when they have each other yet are so incapable of show more truly connecting like you, as the reader, so desperately wish they could.

The book really drew me in, aided I suppose by suffering a debilitating social anxiety myself and finding plenty to relate to during Mattia's chapters. I don't know if it's something that everyone would like, and I completely understand any complaints other people might have about the novel, but I personally enjoyed it and am tremendously glad the cover caught my eye while browsing the public library. 4 stars. show less