When We Cease to Understand the World

Shortlisted for the International Booker Prize

'A monstrous and brilliant book' Philip Pullman
'Mesmerising and revelatory' William Boyd

At breakneck pace and with wondrous detail, Benjamín Labatut uses the imaginative resources of fiction to break open the stories of great scientists and mathematicians who expanded our notions of the possible.

As they grapple with the most profound questions of existence, these troubled men have strokes of unparalleled genius, alienate friends and lovers, descend into isolated states of madness. Some of their discoveries revolutionise our world for the better; others pave the way to chaos and unimaginable suffering. For sometimes, discovery brings destruction.