Open Daily: 10am - 10pm | Alley door pickup 10am - 7pm 3038 Hennepin Ave Minneapolis, MN
612-822-4611

  • Open Daily: 10am - 10pm
    Alley-side Pickup: 10am - 7pm

    3038 Hennepin Ave Minneapolis, MN
    612-822-4611

Open Daily: 10am - 10pm | Alley-side Pickup: 10am - 7pm
3038 Hennepin Ave Minneapolis, MN
612-822-4611
The Impossible Man: Roger Penrose and the Cost of Genius

The Impossible Man: Roger Penrose and the Cost of Genius

Barss, Patchen

Hardcover

Biographies GeneralGeneral MathematicsPhysics

Publisher Price: $32.00

ISBN10: 1541603664
ISBN13: 9781541603660
Publisher: Basic Books
Published: Nov 12 2024
Pages: 352
Weight: 1.20
Height: 1.40 Width: 6.30 Depth: 9.30
Language: English
A New Yorker Best Book of 2024
A Globe and Mail Best Book of 2024
A Financial Times Best Book of 2024
A Kirkus Best Book of 2024
A Daily Telegraph Best Book of 2024


A beautifully composed and revealing (Financial Times) biography of the dazzling and painful life of Nobel Prize-winning physicist Roger Penrose--a stunning achievement (Kai Bird, American Prometheus).

When he was six years old, Roger Penrose discovered a sundial in a clearing near his house. Through that machine made of light, shadow, and time, Roger glimpsed a world behind the world of transcendently beautiful geometry. It spurred him on a journey to become one of the world's most influential mathematicians, philosophers, and physicists.

Penrose would prove the limitations of general relativity, set a new agenda for theoretical physics, and astound colleagues and admirers with the elegance and beauty of his discoveries. However, as Patchen Barss documents in The Impossible Man, success came at a price: He was attuned to the secrets of the universe, but struggled to connect with loved ones, especially the women who care for or worked with him.

Both erudite and poetic, The Impossible Man draws on years of research and interviews, as well as previously unopened archives to present a moving portrait of Penrose the Nobel Prize-winning scientist and Roger the human being. It reveals not just the extraordinary life of Roger Penrose, but asks who gets to be a genius, and who makes the sacrifices that allow one man to be one.

Also in

Biographies General

View All