Paolo Giordano's La solitudine dei numeri primi

The winner of the Premio Strega is Paolo Giordano's La solitudine dei numeri primi. After reading the book, I can see why it took such a prestigious prize.

The book starts off with two major characters: Alice and Mattia (Mattia is a boy's name, by the way). Both characters experience personal tragedies. Alice, who despises skiing, is pushed by her father to excel at it, and breaks her leg (almost dying, I might add). She becomes troubled by her disfigurement -- her leg never quite healing correctly -- and develops anorexia. Mattia ditches his mentally retarded twin sister in a park one afternoon on his way to a friend's birthday party, only to return to find her missing.

After the tragedies are revealed, Mattia and Alice are thrust together in the same school. Mattia has become antisocial, persumably brought on by the shock, guilt and loss of his twin sister but displays an unequaled genius that carries him to great things. Alice becomes self conscious of her body and one can only imagine the taunting and personal internal anguish she would face. She leaves school and devotes herself to the art of photography, going on a completely different path from Mattia.

Both of the main characters become friends and seem to find happiness and peace within each other. Giordano intermixes humor, sadness and tragedy in a seamless way. He reveals the thoughts of his characters, first as young children, in a way that often makes you laugh even in the most distressing of situations. The issues faced by the young kids in high school is something surely anyone in any country could relate to, and this seems to push Alice and Mattia closer together. As the children become adults, their discourse grows, too. This is probably one of the best aspects of the book

The book introduces other characters who always seem somewhat removed from the story yet are inextricably related to the events. Mattia's gay friend, Denis, who hides his love for Mattia which will never be requited. Alice's father, with whom she has a tense relationship, stands always at the periphery, perhaps having given up on reaching his daughter who perhaps holds him responsible for her disfigurement and eating disorder. Alice's mother who develops cancer and dies, leaving her alone. Then there's Fabio, Alice's husband, who Alice uses to replace Mattia or better yet, becomes a surrogate father for Alice. This backfires as Alice transfers her unresolved issues with her father onto him.

Prime numbers are those numbers which can only be divided equally by the number 1 of itself. If you think of the characters in this way, the story makes sense as each of the characters(Mattia, Alice, Denis, Michaela, Fabio) in some way represent different prime numbers -- never divisibile by/with others and only even truly whole with themselves. This is what happens as the story progresses -- Alice and Mattia grow farther apart, perhaps realizing, almost unwittingly that neither truly fits with the other. As Mattia tells us, the larger the prime numbers become, the farther apart they become from each other -- a very fitting description of the relationships in the book.

The ending of the book (which I won't reveal....haha) is definitely moving, and I encourage you to read it. I am hoping that someone will translate it to English. This book is definitely deserving a wider audience.

I found the book very readable. Giordano's style is approachable. I only needed to use a dictionary only a few times. If you're looking to improve your reading comprehension in Italian and want to do it with a book that will keep you interested, you won't be disappointed with Giodarno's La solitudine dei numeri primi.

Other links:
Wikipedia.it has a good summary of the book's characters which you might want to consult before you read the book. I found it to be helpful in understanding some of the nuances of the story.

If you're looking for an English translation of this book, it is due to be published by Doubleday in June 2009. Visit the product page on Amazon.com and be notified when it is available for pre-order.

last updated: 28 September 2008