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.
News of Note
Active Boundaries
Written by Dustin
Wednesday, 02 December 2009
By Michael Palmer (New Directions, $19.95)
Michael Palmer is a poet of excellent range and precision, but these collected essays and lectures feel more like my dream of pub chatter; they're erudite, impassioned, and unfailingly interesting, but also a bit rambling. His insights may be brilliant, but leave an audience with the suspicion that they have no use beyond this one night in this shadowed bar. Naturally, I loved each one.
Michael Palmer is a poet of excellent range and precision, but these collected essays and lectures feel more like my dream of pub chatter; they're erudite, impassioned, and unfailingly interesting, but also a bit rambling. His insights may be brilliant, but leave an audience with the suspicion that they have no use beyond this one night in this shadowed bar. Naturally, I loved each one.