The Order of Time

The physicist transforming how we see the universe

Financial Times

The most fun physicist to be with -- as well as the greatest explainer of physics

Bryan Appleyard, Sunday Times

A dizzying, poetic work in which I found myself abandoning everything I thought I knew about time

Charlotte Higgins, Guardian

An elegantly concise primer makes theoretical physics intelligible. . . stunningly written

Tom Whipple, The Times

Physics' literary superstar makes us rethink time. . . The Order of Time will surely establish Rovelli among the pantheon of great scientist-communicators

Philip Ball, New Scientist

Meet the new Stephen Hawking. . . I've never seen special relativity explained so well, never visualised it less fuzzily, never felt such a jolt of shock at what it implies

James McConnachie, Sunday Times

Rovelli is one of our great scientific explicators. . . Not since Stephen Hawking's A Brief History of Time has there been so genial an integration of physics and philosophy

Ian Thomson, Observer

With the publication of his million-selling Seven Brief Lessons on Physics, Carlo Rovelli took his place with Stephen Hawking and Richard Feynman as one of the great popularisers of modern theoretical physics

Sam Leith, Spectator

A joy to read. . . Rovelli writes easily, vividly and brilliantly - he is as at ease with Beethoven as he is with Boltzmann's constant, and verses by Horace launch each chapter, one of which ends with a couplet from the Grateful Dead. . . A delight

Tim Radford, Guardian

Highly original. . . The heart and humanity of the book, its poetry and its gentle tone raise it to the level and style of such great scientist-writers as Lewis Thomas and Rachel Carson

Alan Lightman, New York Times Book Review

Modern physics has found its poet. A captivating, fascinating, profoundly beautiful book. . . Rovelli is a wonderfully humane, gentle and witty guide for he is as much philosopher and poet as he is a scientist

John Banville, Irish Times

A masterly writer. . . In this little gem of a book, Mr. Rovelli demolishes our common-sense notion of time. . . an ambitious book that illuminates a thorny question and succeeds in being a pleasurable read

Priyamvada Natarajan, Wall Street Journal

Carlo Rovelli has achieved almost prophetic status

Julian Baggini, Prospect

A deep - and remarkably readable - dive into the fundamental nature of time. . . written with enough charm and poetry to engage the imagination of anyone who reads it

Clive Cookson, Financial Times

Anyone with the least interest in the science of the physical world will be by turns astonished, baffled and thrilled by what Rovelli has to say about the true nature of time, which has little in common with our everyday conception of it

John Banville, Guardian

Wonderful. . . Time is something we think we know about instinctively; here he shows how profoundly strange it really is

Philip Pullman, Guardian

I consider Carlo Rovelli to be a poet as much as a physicist. . . Everybody should read this book

Es Devlin

Extraordinary. . . you should read it

Nick Hornby, Believer

Enlightening... gives poetic voice to the common human experience of moving through time, while simultaneously leaving the reader much more equipped to understand how exactly that happens. . . A resounding affirmation of the humanity behind science

Time magazine, Best Nonfiction Books of the 2010s

Brings the most difficult ideas alive in clear, appealing language. It is as close as I've come to a physics lesson that almost suggests the meaning of life

Rory Stewart

This book has been a kind of bible for me. When life feels strange, Rovelli's books remind me that there is beauty in the strangeness. The Order of Time is one of those books that I will always go back to

Johny Pitts

Full of staggering revelations... I could (and will) read and think about such things again and again until they begin to sink in

Maggie Nelson, New York Times