Giordano nos obliga a coger aire ante la crisis del COVID-19 y reflexionar sobre nuestra responsabilidad colectiva, porque, «en tiempos de contagio, somos un solo organismo, una comunidad».
Un nuevo virus irrumpe en un país lejano, aunque no tan lejano. La Tierra se ha vuelto pequeña. Día tras día, billones de impulsos digitales transportan la información a la velocidad de la luz de un punto a otro del planeta; infinidad de aviones surcan los cielos, borrando fronteras a su paso y trasladando sin pausa a millares de personas; y, a menor velocidad, miles de toneladas de mercancías se mueven en todas direcciones en un incesante intercambio mercantil que nutre la economía global.
Y si los bienes materiales llegan hasta los lugares más recónditos con inusitada fluidez, con mayor celeridad aún se transmiten los elementos intangibles consustanciales al ser humano: la palabra, las ideas, los sentimientos, las emociones. Así pues, ante la amenaza de un virus letal de alcance universal, una miríada de opiniones, conjeturas y teorías de todo tipo -desde aquellas basadas en el rigor de la ciencia hasta las que brotan de la fértil imaginación de iluminados y charlatanes- nos envuelve como un sofocante alud que nos dificulta ver, pensar y decidir con sensatez.
En este contexto tan especial, Paolo Giordano comparte con encomiable honestidad y valentía una serie de reflexiones y emociones que le provoca esta inaudita situación, poniendo de manifiesto otra vez una rara virtud para aunar dos mundos supuestamente irreconciliables: la contundente racionalidad del científico con la vulnerabilidad y las incertezas propias de un escritor sensible y comprometido.
From the bestselling author of The Solitude of Prime Numbers, a searing novel of the journey from youth into manhood
A heartrending, at times darkly comic but ultimately redemptive novel, Paolo Giordano's The Human Body is an exploration of brotherhood and family, of modern war and the wars we wage within ourselves. It is a novel that reminds us of what it means to be human.
A platoon of young men and a single woman leave Italy for one of the most dangerous places on earth. At their forward operating base in Afghanistan-an exposed sandpit scorched by inescapable sunlight and mortar fire-this band of inexperienced soldiers navigates the irreversible journey from youth to adulthood. But when a much-debated mission goes devastatingly awry, their lives are changed in an instant. And on their return home, they will confront the most difficult challenge of all: to create a life worth living.
From the Trade Paperback edition.
A prime number is a lonely thing. It can be divided only by itself or by one; it never truly fits with another. Alice and Mattia are both "primes" - misfits who seem destined to be alone. They are haunted by the childhood tragedies that mark their lives and find themselves unable to reach out to anyone else. When the two meet as teenagers, they recognize in each other a kindred, damaged spirit.
As they grow into adulthood, their destinies seem irrevocably intertwined. But when the mathematically gifted Mattia accepts a research position that takes him thousands of miles away, the two are forced to separate with many things left unsaid. A chance encounter will reunite them and force a lifetime of concealed emotion to the surface, but the question remains: Can two prime numbers ever find a way to be together?
The Solitude of Prime Numbers is a stunning meditation on loneliness, love, and the weight of childhood experience. A sensation in its native Italy, where it has sold more than a million copies, it is a remarkable debut, a moving novel that lays bare the soul and captures what it means to be human.
