Reviews

La soledad de los números primos by Paolo Giordano

Only show reviews with written explanations

nickydes's review against another edition

Go to review page

4.0

Super fijn boek, leest heel gemakkelijk!

onlyschmankerl's review against another edition

Go to review page

emotional hopeful sad medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

5.0

candicedintino's review against another edition

Go to review page

dark emotional sad slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

It was a depressing and sad book, and I had a lot of questions by the end.

(Spoiler alert)
Like was it Michela at the hospital? What happened when Viola found out about the film? Did Alice get help for anorexia? Did they get a divorce? What happened with Nadia?

annie97cotton's review against another edition

Go to review page

challenging dark informative reflective sad medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.25

apleiades17's review against another edition

Go to review page

2.0

"amintirea unei amintiri"

anam_kiani's review against another edition

Go to review page

dark sad medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.75

This novel, written by a particle physicist, is about Mattia and Alice, two kids, scarred by their childhood tragedies, and outcasted by the world.
The book gets its title from Mattia, a gifted child and a mathematical wizard. For Mattia, he and Alice are human versions of twin prime numbers, fitting perfectly as the missing pieces in each other’s lives. But, like twin prime numbers there is always a limit to their closeness and they could never be truly together.
“Mattia thought that he and Alice were like that, twin primes, alone and lost, close but not close enough to touch each other. He had never told her that.”

“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 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. There is a common conviction among mathematicians that however far you go, there will always be another two, even if no one can say where exactly, until they are discovered.”

The story starts from their childhood and continues till the later stages of their lives. I enjoyed the story before Mattia’s departure and the commentary on prime numbers. But it lost its charm in the second half as there was no character growth, several ideas were built up and then completely abandoned especially the part where

Alice saw the girl in the hospital. As for Mattia, his decision at the end did not make any sense except that I believe he was not sure about Alice. I liked Alice’s character better but she too was selfish as she only wanted to be on the receiving end in her relationship with Fabio.

Overall, the title is really interesting but the story was not as flowy as it should have been. Although the book is translated from Italian, the translation is flawless.