Daniel Kehlmann

Prussian aristocrat Alexander von Humboldt (1769-1859) was an indefatigable naturalist and geographer, the first to describe South and Central America scientifically. Carl Gauss (1777-1855) was a mathematician and physicist of genius whose work in number theory, differential geometry and magnetism shaped those fields …

From the internationally best-selling author of Measuring the World and F, an eerie and supernatural tale of a writer's emotional collapse"It is fitting that I'm beginning a new notebook up here. New surroundings and new ideas, a new beginning. Fresh air."This passage is from the first entry of a journal kept by the …