The Solitude of Prime Numbers

In clear, heartbreakingly precise prose, the youngest ever winner of the prestigious Premio Strega (the Italian Man Booker) explores how trauma and guilt can capsize emotional stability and leave the vulnerable in a wash of unease and loss... a stunning achievement.

Daily Mail

Very accomplished... A melancholic, but strangely beautiful. Shaun Whiteside's translation is exemplary and the acute descriptions of teenage competitiveness, angst and aspiration bring to mind Alan Warner's writing.

Guardian

Moving... masterful... elegantly discreet

Times Literary Supplement

The year's most important début

La Repubblica

The story is mesmerising

Good Housekeeping

Genius... everybody can find in Giordano's book a small piece of himself

Il Giornale

An elegant fable... its recurring themes of loneliness and longing shimmer through trim and supple prose

Prospect Magazine

A novel of rare acuity and invention... Giordano is adept at capturing the forthright nature of teenagers' contorted thought processes... The prose is toned and precise... a quite wonderful debut.

Spectator

A beautiful and affecting account of the ways in which seemingly inconsequential decisions reverberate so intensely as to change a life forever... This is a book about communication... an intimate psychological portrait of two 'prime numbers' - together alone and alone together.

Booklist

Cerebral yet touching debut... The novel's bleak subject matter is rendered almost beautiful by Giordano's spare, intense focus on his two characters.

Publishers Weekly

In a graceful translation by Shaun Whiteside, this debut multiplies the delicious gloom of youth.

Independent

Surprising, intimate and deeply moving, The Solitude of Prime Numbers takes the readers on a hypnotic journey through an unexpected love affair. Paolo Giordano writes with grace and elegance of gentle but damaged characters, using inventive language to create a story unlike anything in recent fiction. This is everything a debut novel should be and leaves one longing for the books that will follow.

John Boyne, author of The Heart's Invisible Furies

Paolo Giordano is an expert on loss and sorrow. He understands and reveals the hidden hollows of the heart. His story is a quiet one, but his strong writing and unforgettable characters make his book a page turner. The Solitude of Prime Numbers is sad, dark and perfect.

Mary Pipher, author of Letters to a Young Therapist

No wonder Giordano’s readers can be counted in the millions; this astute, aching contemplation of solitude has a power to make us all feel a little less alone. A love story told with astonishing perceptiveness and remarkable subtlety, The Solitude of Prime Numbers is an extraordinary affirmation of the reasons we read.

Stefan Merrill Block, author of The Story of Forgetting

A beautiful and affecting account of the ways in which seemingly inconsequential decisions reverberate so intensely as to change a life forever... This is a book about communication... an intimate psychological portrait of two 'prime numbers' - together alone and alone together. A beautiful and affecting account of the ways in which seemingly inconsequential decisions reverberate so intensely as to change a life forever... This is a book about communication... an intimate psychological portrait of two 'prime numbers' - together alone and alone together

Booklist

A gently moving and insightful read

Daily Express

A very accomplished book... A melancholic, but strangely beautiful, read. Shaun Whiteside's translation is exemplary and the acute descriptions of teenage competitiveness, angst and aspiration bring to mind Alan Warner's writing

Guardian

An elegant fable...its recurring themes of loneliness and longing shimmer through trim and supple prose

Prospect Magazine

Cerebral yet touching debut... The novel's bleak subject matter is rendered almost beautiful by Giordano's spare, intense focus on his two characters

Publishers Weekly

Genius... everybody can find in Giordano's book a small piece of himself

Il Giornale

In clear, heartbreakingly precise prose, the youngest ever winner of the prestigious Premio Strega (the Italian Man Booker) explores how trauma and guilt can capsize emotional stability and leave the vulnerable in a wash of unease and loss...a stunning achievement

Daily Mail

Moving... masterful... elegantly discreet

The Times Literary Supplement

The story is mesmerising

Good Housekeeping

The year's most important début

La Repubblica