A Divine Language: Learning Algebra, Geometry, and Calculus at the Edge of Old Age

A New York Times Book Review Editors´ Choice "Wilkinson has accomplished something more moving and original, braiding his stumbling attempts to get better at math with his deepening awareness that there´s an entire universe of understanding that will, in some fundamental sense, forever lie outside his reach." --Jennifer Szalai, The New York Times "There is almost no writer I admire as much as I do Alec Wilkinson. His work has enduring brilliance and humanity." --Susan Orlean, author of The Library Book A spirited, metaphysical exploration into math´s deepest mysteries and conundrums at the crux of middle age. Decades after struggling to understand math as a boy, Alec Wilkinson decides to embark on a journey to learn it as a middle-aged man. What begins as a personal challenge--and it is challenging--soon transforms into something greater than a belabored effort to learn math. Despite his incompetence, Wilkinson encounters a universe of unexpected questions in his pursuit of mathematical knowledge and quickly becomes fascinated; soon, his exercise in personal growth (and torture) morphs into an intellectually expansive exploration. In A Divine Language, Wilkinson, a contributor to The New Yorker for more than forty years, journeys into the heart of the divine aspects of mathematics--its mysteries, difficulties, and revelations--from antiquity to the present. As he submits himself to the lure of deep mathematics, he takes the reader through his investigations into the subject´s big questions: number theory and the creation of numbers, the debate over math´s human or otherworldly origins, problems and equations that remain unsolved after centuries, the conundrum of prime numbers. Writing with warm humor and sharp observation as he traverses practical math´s endless frustrations and rewards, Wilkinson provides an awe-inspiring account of an adventure in a land of strange sights. Part memoir, part metaphysical travel book, and part journey in self-improvement, A Divine Language is one man´s second attempt at understanding the numbers in front of him and the world beyond.