Synopses & Reviews
A bestselling international literary sensation about whether a "prime number" can ever truly connect with someone else A prime number can only be divided by itself or by one—it never truly fits with another. Alice and Mattia, both "primes," are misfits who seem destined to be alone. Haunted by childhood tragedies that mark their lives, they cannot reach out to anyone else. When Alice and Mattia meet as teenagers, they recognize in each other a kindred, damaged spirit.
But the mathematically gifted Mattia accepts a research position that takes him thousands of miles away, and the two are forced to separate. Then a chance occurrence reunites them and forces a lifetime of concealed emotion to the surface.
Like Mark Haddon's The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time, this is a stunning meditation on loneliness, love, and the weight of childhood experience that is set to become a universal classic.
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Review
Acclaim for Hector and the Search for Happiness:“Utterly charming . . . Fans of Eat, Pray, Love and The Elegance of the Hedgehog won’t want to miss this gem of a book.” —BookPage
Review
"A mesmerizing portrait of a young man and woman whose injured natures draw them together over the years and inevitably pull them apart. Mr. Giordano remarkably and movingly portrays the hesitant groping toward warmth that works beneath the pair's emotional disabilities. The author works with piercing subtlety. An exquisite rendering of what one might call feelings at the subatomic level."
-Richard Eder for The New York Times
"The melancholy that hangs over The Solitude of Prime Numbers is seductive and unnerving. A-."
-Entertainment Weekly
"Giordano's passionate evocation of being young and in despair will resonate strongly with readers."
-USA Today
"The elegant and fiercely intelligent debut novel by 27-year-old physicist Paolo Giordano, The Solitude of Prime Numbers revolves around Mattia and Alice, friends since high school-'twin primes, alone and lost, close but not close enough to really touch each other,' wherein resides the seductive enchantment of this singular love story."
-Elle
"This compelling debut shows a remarkable sensitivity and maturity in the depiction of its damaged soulmates. A fragile, unconventional love story by a talent to watch."
-Kirkus
"A deeply touching debut. Beautiful and affecting...it reads easily, due in party to the almost seamless translation. An intimate psychological portrait of two 'prime numbers'-together alone and alone together."
-Booklist
"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 Boy in the Striped Pajamas
"Paul 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 Seeking Peace: Chronicles of the Worst Buddhist in the World
"What a shock to open a novel written by a young physicist in Italy and find myself there, on every page. 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
Synopsis
A romantic comedy for language lovers and fans of The Rosie Project, about a brainy bachelor and the cat that opens his eyes to life s little pleasures
The Silver Linings Playbook author Matthew Quick:
A delightfully absurd, life-affirming celebration. I literally stood up and cheered as I read the last page.
When Samuel, a lonely linguistics lecturer, wakes up on New Year s Day, he is convinced that the year ahead will bring nothing more than passive verbs and un-italicized moments until an unexpected visitor slips into his Barcelona apartment and refuses to leave. The appearance of Mishima, a stray, brindle-furred cat, becomes the catalyst that leads Samuel from the comforts of his favorite books, foreign films, and classical music to places he s never been (next door) and to people he might never have met (a neighbor with whom he s never exchanged a word). Even better, the Catalan cat leads him back to the mysterious Gabriela, whom he thought he d lost long before, and shows him, in this international bestsellerfor fans of The Rosie Project, The Solitude of Prime Numbers, andThe Guest Cat, that sometimes love is hiding in the smallest characters.
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Synopsis
A feel-good novel for fans of A Man Called Ove andThe Rosie Project, about an eccentric, language-loving bachelor and the cat that opens his eyes to life s little pleasures
The Silver Linings Playbook author Matthew Quick:
A delightfully absurd, life-affirming celebration. I literally stood up and cheered as I read the last page.
When Samuel, a lonely linguistics lecturer, wakes up on New Year s Day, he is convinced that the year ahead will bring nothing more than passive verbs and un-italicized moments until an unexpected visitor slips into his Barcelona apartment and refuses to leave. The appearance of Mishima, a stray, brindle-furred cat, becomes the catalyst that leads Samuel from the comforts of his favorite books, foreign films, and classical music to places he s never been (next door) and to people he might never have met (a neighbor with whom he s never exchanged a word). Even better, the Catalan cat leads him back to the mysterious Gabriela, whom he thought he d lost long before, and shows him, in this international bestsellerfor fans of The Rosie Project, The Solitude of Prime Numbers, andA Man Called Ove, that sometimes love is hiding in the smallest characters.
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Synopsis
Now a major motion picture starring Simon Pegg, Rosamund Pike, Toni Collette, and Christopher Plummer
The international bestseller with more than two million copies sold
Once upon a time there was a young psychiatrist called Hector who was not very satisfied with himself. . . . And so he decided to take a trip around the world, and everywhere he went he would try to understand what made people happy or unhappy.”
Hector travels from Paris to China to Africa to the United States, and along the way he keeps a list of observations about the people he meets. Combining the winsome appeal of The Little Prince with the inspiring philosophy of The Alchemist, Hectors journey around the world and into the human soul is entertaining, empowering, and smile-inducingas winning in its optimism as it is wise in its simplicity.
Synopsis
The delightful third book in the multimillion-copy internationally bestselling seriesBeing up against the clock was a real problem for so many people, thought Hector. What could he possibly do to help them?
First he tackled happiness. Then he took on love. And now Hector, our endearing young French psychiatrist, confronts the persistent march of time.
His patients lament that there is not enough time in the day. Or they feel that life is passing them by. And in one case, a young boy turns the problem on its head: He's impatient to grow up! Hector himself is increasingly aware of time: He doesn't feel quite so young anymore, and the clock is ticking on his relationship with his beloved Clara.
So as time flies, so does our wise and winsome hero in his latest adventure, traveling around the world to understand the past, the future, and how best to enjoy the present.
Synopsis
The irresistible second installment in the beloved series that has sold millions of copies worldwide. Since his first captivating adventure in Hector and the Search for Happiness, Hector the young French psychiatrist has continued to explore the mysteries of the human soul. Having found that love seems virtually inseparable from happiness, he begins taking notes on this powerful emotion. But unbeknownst to him, Clara, the doctor's beloved, is making her own investigations into love.
As much a love story as a novel about love, Hector and the Secrets of Love is a feel-good life manual wrapped in a globetrotting adventure, told with the blend of a fairy tale's naïve wisdom and a satirist's dry wit that has won Hector fans around the world.
About the Author
François Lelord has had a successful career as a psychiatrist in France, where he was born, and in the United States, where he did his postdoc (UCLA). He is the co-author of a number of bestselling self-help books and has consulted for companies interested in reducing stress for their employees. He was on a trip to Hong Kong, questioning his personal and professional life, when the Hector character popped into his mind, and he wrote Hector and the Search for Happiness not quite knowing what kind of book he was writing. The huge success of Hector, first in France, then in Germany and other countries, led him to spend more time writing and traveling, and at the height of the SARS epidemic he found himself in Vietnam, where he practiced psychiatry for a French NGO whose profits go toward heart surgery for poor Vietnamese children. While in Vietnam he also met his future wife, Phuong; today they live in Thailand.
François Lelord's series of novels about Hector's journeys includes Hector and the Search for Happiness, Hector and the Secrets of Love, and Hector and the Search for Lost Time.