Just in time for the summer beach reading season. Lots of typos (these are galley copies), but all the good stuff is there, too. 25 galley copies available. Deadline July 1st. US only. Canadians will get a crack at free copies next month. Form is here:
http://www.penguin.com/the-mathematicians-shiva-galley-giveaway/
on the Rationally Speaking podcast. A lot of interesting discussion on the role of philosophy in modern science, and then during the last few minutes, novelist/philosopher Dr. Goldstein talks about why she likes my novel (she also volunteered to provide a blurb for the book jacket). I don’t know her. I admire her work, though, and it’s probably true that without it, I would have dismissed the idea that I could sell a novel about mathematicians (which includes some real math) to a major publisher. As I suspected all along, she doesn’t just possess outstanding literary skills; she also has excellent taste in novels!
Booth 449 at the ALA in Las Vegas, June 26 – July 1. Don’t know the date and time of the giveaway. I hope, of course, that librarians love the book. Details on all the giveaways at the ALA can be found here:
Thank you for such a super-sweet review!
June 23, 2014
High math, Eastern European history, and American culture converge in this hugely entertaining debut from geophysicist Rojstaczer. After Rachela Karnokovitch, a Polish émigré and University of Wisconsin professor regarded as her generation’s leading mathematician, dies from cancer in 2001, her middle-aged son, Alexander, a meteorologist also known as Sasha, is tasked with organizing the shiva for her. Though his family is challenging enough, Sasha’s real difficulties begin when dozens of his mother’s colleagues descend on Madison to pay their respects. Brilliant, awkward, lovable, and selfish, these superstar mathematicians prove to be less interested in mourning Rachela than in uncovering her secrets – particularly her rumored solution to one of math’s most famous enigmas, the Navier-Stokes problem. The ostensible mourners rip up floorboards, hold séances, and even read meaning into a 40-year-old parrot’s squawks, all the while discussing the charms and pitfalls of Eastern European identity and the perpetual shock of life in America. Counterbalancing their antics are flashbacks to Rachela’s childhood flight from Poland during World War II. These passages, presented as excerpts from her memoir, add depth to an already multilayered story of family, genius, and loss.
If you click on the image, you can see the detail and text. Thank you all for your kind words and thanks to Emiliano Ponzi and Paul Buckley for a beautiful cover.
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