When We Cease To Understand The World by Benjamin Labatut

 

This book looks at various scientific explorations and discovers, mostly in the fields of mathematics and physics.  Names many will have heard are discussed here such as Bohr, Heisenberg, Schrodinger and others more obscure, Haber and Grothendieck.  Each man's work and discoveries are outlined and their lives explored.  Unfortunately, most of them led sad lives with alienated loves and often madness after a promising start to life.  

The discoveries were not all positive.  For example, the discovery of the beautiful Prussian Blue color for painters later resulted in the use of it in the cyanide that was used in Germany's death camps.  Einstein, for one, disagreed with the results of some of the scientists although they were proven correct in the end.  The math was so above the average and even expert understanding that those who made those breakthroughs had no one to discuss their knowledge with and that played some part in their eventual withdrawals and madness.  Many felt that their discoveries had left the world worse off rather than better. 

Benjamin Labatut's childhood was spent between The Netherlands and South America and he has lived in Chile since he was twelve.  This novel was shortlisted for the International Booker Prize and the National Book Award for translated works.  He sees his work as different from others because he feels that most novels focus on character and his work focuses on ideas.  He seems attracted to thinkers in science as his following novel was about John von Neumann, another mathematical genius whose work is pivotal but is understood by few.  One thing I did not like was that in the afterword Labatut says some of what he wrote is true and some fiction but the parts that were not true were not identified.  Since I know little about the scientific fields he was discussing, that left me frustrated not knowing which parts to believe.  This book is recommended for literary fiction readers, especially those interested in science and math.