When We Cease to Understand the World

"When We Cease to Understand the World" by Benjamín Labatut is a brilliant and fascinating book about the paradox of scientific discoveries and the lines between madness and genius. In "When We Cease to Understand the World" Benjamín Labatut unfolds the stories of some of the worlds' most innovative scientists who with unparalleled talents balances between madness and genius with their discoveries that has the abilities to create both hope and peace but also death and destruction. With a gripping use of fiction Benjamín Labatut tells the stories about scientists like Fritz Haber, Alexander Grothendieck, Werner Heisenberg and Erwin Schroedinger who expanded our world to the impossible.

"When We Cease to Understand the World" by Benjamín Labatut is a brilliant and fascinating book about the paradox of scientific discoveries and the lines between madness and genius. In "When We Cease to Understand the World" Benjamín Labatut unfolds the stories of some of the worlds' most innovative scientists who with unparalleled talents balances between madness and genius with their discoveries that has the abilities to create both hope and peace but also death and destruction. With a gripping use of fiction Benjamín Labatut tells the stories about scientists like Fritz Haber, Alexander Grothendieck, Werner Heisenberg and Erwin Schroedinger who expanded our world to the impossible.

One of The New York Times Book Review 's 10 Best Books of 2021 Shortlisted for the 2021 International Booker Prize and the 2021 National Book Award for Translated Literature A fictional examination of the lives of real-life scientists and thinkers whose discoveries resulted in moral consequences beyond their imagining. When We Cease to Understand the World is a book about the complicated links between scientific and mathematical discovery, madness, and destruction. Fritz Haber, Alexander Grothendieck, Werner Heisenberg, Erwin Schr?dinger--these are some of luminaries into whose troubled lives Benjam?n Labatut thrusts the reader, showing us how they grappled with the most profound questions of existence. They have strokes of unparalleled genius, alienate friends and lovers, descend into isolation and insanity. Some of their discoveries reshape human life for the better; others pave the way to chaos and unimaginable suffering. The lines are never clear. At a breakneck pace and with a wealth of disturbing detail, Labatut uses the imaginative resources of fiction to tell the stories of the scientists and mathematicians who expanded our notions of the possible.

One of The New York Times Book Review 's 10 Best Books of 2021 Shortlisted for the 2021 International Booker Prize and the 2021 National Book Award for Translated Literature A fictional examination of the lives of real-life scientists and thinkers whose discoveries resulted in moral consequences beyond their imagining. When We Cease to Understand the World is a book about the complicated links between scientific and mathematical discovery, madness, and destruction. Fritz Haber, Alexander Grothendieck, Werner Heisenberg, Erwin Schr?dinger--these are some of luminaries into whose troubled lives Benjam?n Labatut thrusts the reader, showing us how they grappled with the most profound questions of existence. They have strokes of unparalleled genius, alienate friends and lovers, descend into isolation and insanity. Some of their discoveries reshape human life for the better; others pave the way to chaos and unimaginable suffering. The lines are never clear. At a breakneck pace and with a wealth of disturbing detail, Labatut uses the imaginative resources of fiction to tell the stories of the scientists and mathematicians who expanded our notions of the possible.