Wow!
Don't let this one slip away!
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. (www.goodreads.com)
Where to start?
This is a diamond amongst pearls.
It's been recommended to me by a longtime friend and she told me I'd certainly was going to like it. I have to buy her something expensive since she got it spot on.
This novel hit home. It almost felt personal, as if the writer knew me. Many of the things said or thought, I can relate to.
Of course most of you don't know me, but I am quite a loner. Not antisocial, or anything, but I just don't seem to connect to others as easily as most seem to do.
In this novel we follow a girl and a boy who both have gone through something horrible when they were very young and we see how it has scarred them growing up. Alice is punishing herself quite abusively and Mattia seeks to flee away in a world of mathematics where everything can be logically explained.
It's a novel about how loneliless sometimes is more than only an occurence one needs to remedy by being with others. You can be lonely together.
It's not a long novel, It's been written wonderful or translated into English I have to say, since the original novel is in Italian. As I was reading it, I kept thinking that it would make a great movie and as I searched the internet for a picture to put up in my blog, I found out it has already been adapted to the big screen.
So, read and don't forget this novel! Especially when you're one of those people not quite adapting to others.
Personal score: 5 stars
