Paolo Gioradano's debut novel has sold over a million copies around the world and earned him Italy's premier literary prize, the Premio Strega. Now, finally, we've earned our taste of his celebrated book here in the states. The Solitude of Prime Numbers is a book of striking beauty and disturbing content, including anorexia, cutting, loneliness and guilt. It's a coming-of-age story in the most awkward and lovely tradition, and its two protagonists are destined to win hearts here just as easily as they have abroad.
Giordano is a young author - only 27 - and his acclaim is all the more impressive given that he's a physicist by trade. He'll be here in conversation with his editor and now head of her own eponymous imprint, Pamela Dorman.
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Staff Picks
Inside the Painter's Studio
Written by Adjua
By Joe Fig (Princeton Architectural Press, $35.00)
It's almost too good, this book. The collection of images of artists' studios might have been enough for its scope and the insight it provides alone, but, then, we also get interviews with each artist where they talk about process and influence and intent and reveal themselves just the way you'd want if you're the kind of person who gets all fired up by just looking at images of someone's workspace. Oh, and those images--not just photos, but actually photos of miniature replicas of the studios made by Joe Fig. What's funny is that that's how this whole thing came about, he was so into process that he scaled down and duplicated the process of creating (and working in) each space and interviewed the artists to support that work. Extraordinary.
Let the Great World Spin
Written by Erin
By Colum McCann (Random House, $15.00)
Let the Great World Spin left me spinning--in a good way. McCann's deft portrayal of his characters' deep inner lives feels so authentic, so powerful, that the entire novel manages to be both emotionally vast and psychologically intimate at the same time. In the end, this novel is as breathtaking as Philip Petit's wire-walk itself.
The Adderall Diaries
Written by Sam
By Stephen Elliott (Graywolf Press, $23.00)
I swallowed this book whole in a single night. Part memoir, part true-crime investigation, The Adderall Diaries plumbs the depths of memory, family, writer's block, study drugs, wounds both emotional and physical, and murders confessed and denied. Gripping, gripping stuff.
It's almost too good, this book. The collection of images of artists' studios might have been enough for its scope and the insight it provides alone, but, then, we also get interviews with each artist where they talk about process and influence and intent and reveal themselves just the way you'd want if you're the kind of person who gets all fired up by just looking at images of someone's workspace. Oh, and those images--not just photos, but actually photos of miniature replicas of the studios made by Joe Fig. What's funny is that that's how this whole thing came about, he was so into process that he scaled down and duplicated the process of creating (and working in) each space and interviewed the artists to support that work. Extraordinary.
Let the Great World Spin left me spinning--in a good way. McCann's deft portrayal of his characters' deep inner lives feels so authentic, so powerful, that the entire novel manages to be both emotionally vast and psychologically intimate at the same time. In the end, this novel is as breathtaking as Philip Petit's wire-walk itself.
I swallowed this book whole in a single night. Part memoir, part true-crime investigation, The Adderall Diaries plumbs the depths of memory, family, writer's block, study drugs, wounds both emotional and physical, and murders confessed and denied. Gripping, gripping stuff.