The Mathematician's Shiva

WINNER OF THE NATIONAL JEWISH BOOK AWARD FOR OUTSTANDING DEBUT FICTION

For readers of This Is Where I Leave You and Everything Is Illuminated, "a brilliant and compelling family saga full of warmth, pathos, history and humor" (Jonathan Evison, author of West of Here)

When the greatest female mathematician in history passes away, her son, Alexander "Sasha" Karnokovitch, just wants to mourn his mother in peace. But rumor has it the notoriously eccentric Polish migr has solved one of the most difficult problems in all of mathematics, and has spitefully taken the solution to her grave. As a ragtag group of mathematicians from around the world descends upon Rachela's shiva, determined to find the proof or solve it for themselves--even if it means prying up the floorboards for notes or desperately scrutinizing the mutterings of her African Grey parrot--Sasha must come to terms with his mother's outsized influence on his life.

Spanning decades and continents, from a crowded living room in Madison, Wisconsin, to the windswept beach on the Barents Sea where a young Rachela had her first mathematical breakthrough, The Mathematician's Shiva is an unexpectedly moving and uproariously funny novel that captures humanity's drive not just to survive, but to achieve the impossible.

Binding Type: Paperback
Publisher: Penguin Books
Published: 09/02/2014
ISBN: 9780143126317
Pages: 384
Weight: 0.63lbs
Size: 8.21h x 5.35w x 0.84d
Award: National Jewish Book Award - Winner

Review Citations: Publishers Weekly 06/23/2014
Kirkus Reviews 09/01/2014
Library Journal 09/15/2014 pg. 70
Booklist 09/01/2014 pg. 45
New York Times Book Review 11/02/2014 pg. 30
Library Journal 11/01/2015 pg. 84