Wednesday, August 20, 2014

Giveaway - The Mathematician's Shiva - Stuart Rojstaczer

I've got a copy of Stuart Rojstaczer's debut novel, The Mathematican's Shiva to giveaway today, courtesy of the generosity of Penguin Books.

From the publisher:

"A comic, bittersweet tale of family evocative of The Yiddish Policemen's Union and Everything Is Illuminated.

Alexander "Sasha" Karnokovitch and his family would like to mourn the passing of his mother, Rachela, with modesty and dignity. But Rachela, a famous Polish émigré mathematician and professor at the University of Wisconsin, is rumored to have solved the million-dollar, Navier-Stokes Millennium Prize problem. Rumor also has it that she spitefully took the solution to her grave. To Sasha's chagrin, a ragtag group of socially challenged mathematicians arrives in Madison and crashes the shiva, vowing to do whatever it takes to find the solution--even if it means prying up the floorboards for Rachela's notes.

Written by a Ph.D. geophysicist, this hilarious and multi-layered debut novel brims with colorful characters and brilliantly captures humanity's drive not just to survive, but to solve the impossible.When the greatest female mathematician in history passes away, her son, Alexander “Sasha” Karnokovitch, just wants to mourn his mother in peace. But rumor has it the notoriously eccentric Polish émigré has solved one of the most difficult problems in all of mathematics, and has spitefully taken the solution to her grave. As a ragtag group of mathematicians from around the world descends upon Rachela’s shiva, determined to find the proof or solve it for themselves—even if it means prying up the floorboards for notes or desperately scrutinizing the mutterings of her African Grey parrot—Sasha must come to terms with his mother’s outsized influence on his life.

Spanning decades and continents, from a crowded living room in Madison, Wisconsin, to the windswept beach on the Barents Sea where a young Rachela had her first mathematical breakthrough, The Mathematician’s Shiva is an unexpectedly moving and uproariously funny novel that captures humanity’s drive not just to survive, but to achieve the impossible." A hugely entertaining debut - Publishers Weekly" Read an excerpt of The Mathematician's Shiva.

The Mathematician's Shiva releases on Sept 2/14. If this sounds like a book you'd like to read, simply leave a comment to be entered. Open to US and Canada, no PO boxes please. Ends Sept 6/14

5 comments:

KAS said...

Well, this sure sounds like a delicious, intellectually rigorous, eccentricity; you can count me in, if you will, for this great contest. I guess by eccentricity I mean a delicacy for this reader's mental palate or something close to that...

Best wishes,
K

shamy at post dot harvard dot edu if I win this weird delight...

Maureen said...

It looks like an interesting book.
mce1011 AT aol DOT com

Marjorie/cenya2 said...

I really like the storyline of this book and would enjoy reading it.

cenya2 at Hotmail dot com

Anita Yancey said...

It sounds like a great story. I would enjoy reading about all of the colorful characters. Thanks for having the giveaway.

ayancey1974(at)gmail(dot)com

Unknown said...

I thought I entered this last week. Hmm, I guess my entry did not go through. I'm going to attempt to remember my wittiness.

I absolutely would love the opportunity to read "The Mathematician's Shiva". It's especially interesting to me for a couple of reasons. 1, I am an engineer and I love all things mathematical, so this creates a certain amount of intrigue. 2, I am Jewish, and seeing how they sit shiva for Rachela, really invokes memories of my heritage and my past.

Thanks for the giveaway.
mboltuch(at)gmail(dot)com