- Paperback: 224 pages
- Publisher: Faber & Faber; 1st Edition, 2nd Impression edition (20 Mar 2000)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0571202039
- ISBN-13: 978-0571202034
- Product Dimensions: 21.8 x 13.2 x 1.8 cm
- Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars See all reviews (25 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 316,178 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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Product Description
Amazon.co.uk Review
"Every family has its black sheep--in ours it was Uncle Petros": the narrator of Apostles Doxiadis's novel Uncle Petros and Goldbach's Conjecture is the mystified nephew of the family's black sheep, unable to understand the reasons for his uncle's fall from grace. A kindly, gentle recluse devoted only to gardening and chess, Petros Papachristos exhibits no signs of dissolution or indolence: so why do his family hold him in such low esteem? One day, his father reveals all:
Your uncle, my son, committed the greatest of sins ... he took something holy and sacred and great, and shamelessly defiled it! The great, unique gift that God had blessed him with, his phenomenal, unprecedented mathematical talent! The miserable fool wasted it; he squandered it and threw it out with the garbage. Can you imagine it? The ungrateful bastard never did one day's useful work in mathematics. Never! Nothing! Zero!Instead of being warned off, the nephew instead has his curiosity provoked, and what he eventually discovers is a story of obsession and frustration, of Uncle Petros's attempts at finding a proof for one of the great unsolved problems of mathematics--Goldbach's conjecture.
If this might initially seem undramatic material for a novel, readers of Fermat's Last Theorem, Simon Singh's gripping true-life account of Andrew Wiles's search for a proof for another of the great long-standing problems of mathematics, would surely disagree. What Doxiadis gives us is the fictional corollary of Singh's book: a beautifully imagined narrative that is both compelling as a story and highly revealing of a rarefied world of the intellect that few people will ever access. Without ever alienating the reader, he demonstrates the enchantments of mathematics as well as the ambition, envy and search for glory that permeate even this most abstract of pursuits. Balancing the narrator's own awkward move into adulthood with the painful memories of his brilliant uncle, Doxiadis shows how seductive the world of numbers can be, and how cruel a mistress. "Mathematicians are born, not made," Petros declares: an inheritance that proves to be both a curse and a gift.--Burhan Tufail
Product Description
Uncle Petros is a family joke, but his young nephew suspects there is more to this ageing recluse, living alone in a suburb of Athens. He discovers Petros was once a celebrated mathematician, foolhardy enough to stake everything on solving a problem that defied proof for nearly three centuries.
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
8 of 8 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
(I read the English version and will strive to find the Greek version as soon as possible)
I just finished the book. I read the entire book in one sitting. It is without doubt the finest book I have ever read. I will not ramble on with the details of the plot, all I have to say is just "Buy it!". While browsing customer reviews you always see books said to be "Amazing","Fabulous" and similar adjectives but once you buy it you just think "Good". This is not the case. This is a totally honest review (I don't know if it is objective though; I liked to book far too much to be objective) and the book is, as far as I am allowed to judge a book, fantastic.
I am not a mathematician but have read similar books, like "Fermat's Last Theorem", most of which I found rather fascinating, but this book is better than all of them. If you have an interest in mathematics and/or remotely liked the aforementioned (or similar) title, you absolutely *must* buy this book.
I can't really say how I would have reacted to this book if I hated Mathematics. It is by no means a technical book in the sense that if you *hate* mathematics, you won't have to put up with it. I guess that you will definitely find the book "very good", but I cannot really guarantee that it will become your favourite book - maybe, I simply don't know.
16 of 17 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
It is difficult to imagine a reader more bored by maths than myself, or one more charmed by this novel. Firstly, the mathematics with which "Uncle Petros" is concerned is not the dull grind of calculation that blighted our schooldays, but another, more mystical, study; a quest for the underlying logic of the universe. But the story of Petros and his nephew is much more. It is a clear and lively introduction to some of the intellectual milestones of the 20th Century, a study of the gradations between ambition and obsession, a fable about the way our family stories shape us and how growing up is, in part, a process of continually reshaping these stories for ourselves (and others). To use an analogy I could not have made before reading it, the novel is itself like a great mathematical proof--spare, beautiful, and only simple on the surface.
5 of 5 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
I have been reading for over 30 years. Before reading Uncle Petros.....I had only three books in my library which I though were keeping. I now have four. A masterpiece.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
Uncle Petros
This book was one of the selections of our Round the World Book Group. This is the story of one man's attempt to solve a centuries old mathematical mystery. Read more
Published 18 months ago by Mr. A. Mcinnes
Okay, but not great!
This book is splattered with praise, both within its first four pages and here on
Amazon. It's a competent and well-crafted novella and an enjoyable enough read but
if... Read more
Amazon. It's a competent and well-crafted novella and an enjoyable enough read but
if... Read more
Published 23 months ago by W. Gillies
Minor Greek Tragedy. Major Problem
This engaging story deserves the maximum rating which other reviewers have given it, even though the ending is perhaps a bit predictable. Read more
Published on 28 May 2010 by Yellow Duck
Inciteful and unusual
An individual capable of both advanced mathematics and writing a novel is a rare bird, and I can't think of any precedent of the novel being used as a means of telling people about... Read more
Published on 27 Oct 2009 by Keith D. Brown
Great book - even if you don't understand maths
Great book, with an interesting premiss. I had to buy this book twice as I gave my previous copy away, but so wanted to read it again. Read more
Published on 28 Aug 2009 by Marc Robertson
Most captivating book I have ever read
An excellent novel, a life story built around a mathematical conjecture. It does not require any mathematical skills to read, however anyone with engineering or science background... Read more
Published on 12 Jan 2009 by EMILIOS MAKRIDES
Greek tragedy in less then 200 pages about theoretical maths
Uncle Petros and Golbach's Conjecture was originally a best selling Greek novel and has now been published over 20 languages so don't get switched off by the title and subject... Read more
Published on 22 Feb 2008 by John
the most enjoyable mathematics
this book is, simply put, a great read ... although it is firmly grounded on mathematics, and introduces this world to the reader, it is by no means a book you have to be scared of... Read more
Published on 4 Dec 2006 by allesteer
Living Under The Same Roof
When I was young, I picked a random book of my dad's library books and just began reading it. At this point I remember I didnt look at the title of the book, however I remember... Read more
Published on 30 Jun 2005 by Emma
Definitely one of the nicest books I have ever read...
This book is profound, hilarious and bright. It's great for everyone but for those of you with a particular interest by Mathematics is even more than great. Don't think! BUY IT!
Published on 14 Jun 2005 by Paulo Jorge Matos
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