Originally published in Italian as "Las Solitudine dei Numberi Primi," in 2009, Paolo Giordano's debut novel is now translated into English for the North American market.The book follows the lives of Alice and Mattia, two people who don't fit in, who are solitary (like prime numbers). As each recoils from childhood trauma into a life of solitude, their stories start to intersect when they find one another in high school. Drawn together as outcasts often are in high school, they find comfort in each other's presence. If they are too broken to love a normal person, could they love each other? Perhaps they can find happiness, or at least inner peace, by combining their two solitudes. But, when Mattia chooses to travel far away, Alice is left behind and and know each is alone again, trying to live amongst "normal" people, trying to erase who are they really are.
Giordano's book is full of solitude and melancholy. It is beautifully written and captures the inner torment that Alice and Mattia cope with and the always emergant need for love and acceptance, for forgiveness and release.
