Paolo Giordano

Misfits Alice and Mattia bond as teens over shared experiences of suffering before mathematically gifted Mattia accepts a research position that takes him far away, a situation that restores their isolation before they meet by chance years later.

"A powerful, epic novel of four friends as they grapple with desire, youth, death, and faith in a sweeping story by the international bestselling author of The Solitude of Prime Numbers Every year, after her school in Turin closes for the summer holidays, Teresa follows her father to his childhood home in Puglia and endures weeks of relentless heat and boredom. But everything changes the summer she meets the three boys who live on the farm next door:...

Every year, after her school in Turin closes for the summer holidays, Teresa follows her father to his childhood home in Puglia and endures weeks of heat and boredom. This summer she meets the three boys who live on the farm next door: Nicola; Tommaso; and charismatic Bern. Raised like brothers, they don't go to school, but instead live in a kind of commune led by Cesare, a teacher and father figure who believes in God, reincarnation, and the earth....