The Loneliness of Prime Numbers

Seven-year-old Alice is forced by her father to take skiing lessons every day against her will. One misty morning, she separates herself from her ski class and decides to make the descent alone, but she falls and is paralyzed in one leg for the rest of her life. Mattia is one half of a twin. He is hyper-intelligent, his sister Michela is mentally handicapped.

When the twins are invited to a birthday party, Mattia is embarrassed by Michela's behavior and decides to leave her on a park bench with the instruction that she must wait for him there. When he returns, his sister has disappeared and is never found again. In high school, Alice and Mattia's lives cross and a strange friendship develops. They feel connected from the day they meet, but soon realize how difficult it is to make real contact with each other.

The Solitude of Prime Numbers is a gripping story of a special friendship that grips the reader from the very first page, and a magnificent debut in which Paolo Giordano demonstrates a keen insight into the complex human psyche.