“‘It is brilliantly written—a mathematical detective story of great charm—and it certainly succeeds in capturing much of the spirit of mathematical research.’
“‘It is brilliantly written—a mathematical detective story of great charm—and it certainly succeeds in capturing much of the spirit of mathematical research.’
Anyone letting slip in literary company that they have never heard of Shakespeare or Mozart, will be regarded rather pityingly and undoubtedly viewed as an uncultured person. Anyone announcing that they know little or nothing about mathematics, physics or chemistry need have no fear for their reputation. More than that…
‘Doxiadis invites us into the universe of Number Theory, he gives us a glimpse of what the mathematical profession and community during the first decades of the 20th century was like and introduces us to fascinating persons, such as the mathematicians Hardy, Ramanujan, Turing and Godel. Above all, he introduces us to the subterranean, psychological world of mathematical thought and …continue reading…
Enfin un livre qui parle de science et qui se devore comme un roman policier – un roman policier mathematique. C’est un recit plein de charme et de suspense qu’a ecrit Apostolos Doxiadis, homme de theatre et industriel grec forme aux mathematiques…
“GREAT LOVES are often born of loneliness”, and this, the narrator concludes, is the case with his uncle’s affair with numbers. Petros has spent a lifetime searching for Goldbach’s Conjecture…
At first blush, one could hardly think of a more dry and uninviting premise for a novel. But along comes applied-mathematics-student-turned film-maker, Apostolos Doxiadis, who with Uncle Petros and Goldbach’s Conjecture has given us a fascinating, captivating, intellectual joy ride…
For those who want to be millionaires but shudder to contemplate facing a smirking Regis Philbin as he asks, “Is that your final answer?” the publishers of “Uncle Petros and Goldbach’s Conjecture,” a novel by Apostolos Doxiadis offer a challenging alternative…
BOY MEETS GIRL, perhaps; girl meets girl or boy, boy; occasionally boy or girl may even find perfect happiness with dog or horse: As a rule, love stories treat relationships among the animate. But “Uncle Petros & Goldbach’s Conjecture” describes a passion wholly of the mind…
Uncle Petros and Goldbach’s Conjecture is a recent English translation of a 1992 Greek novel. The author — and I’ll say this at the start since, if you’re like me, you’re very reluctant to read a novel about a mathematician written by an author who knows little about mathematics — received a bachelors degree in mathematics at Columbia University and a masters degree in applied mathematics at the Ecole Pratique des Hautes Etudes in Paris…
It is a matter of some concern over and above the purely literary when a publisher, in whom the present reviewer has to declare an interest, announces that it is prepared to give away a cool $1 million. And all the more so when, in the last financial year, it made a profit of only £256,000, a sum I had thought perfectly respectable until announcement of this damn fool publicity stunt was made…