
When We Cease to Understand the World
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Narrated by:
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Adam Barr
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By:
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Benjamín Labatut
About this listen
Shortlisted for the 2021 International Booker Prize.
A Guardian Fiction Book of the year.
Sometimes discovery brings destruction.
When We Cease to Understand the World shows us great minds striking out into dangerous, uncharted terrain.
Fritz Haber, Alexander Grothendieck, Werner Heisenberg, Erwin Schrödinger: these are among the luminaries into whose troubled minds we are thrust as they grapple with the most profound questions of existence. They have strokes of unparalleled genius, they alienate friends and lovers, they 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. The lines are never clear.
With breakneck pace and wondrous detail, Benjamín Labatut uses the imaginative resources of fiction to break open the stories of scientists and mathematicians who expanded our notions of the possible.
©2020 Benjamín Labatut (P)2021 Pushkin PressListeners also enjoyed...
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A monstrous and brilliant book.
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What listeners say about When We Cease to Understand the World
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- Andreas
- 04-16-23
Read of the year
This is a beautifully written, mind expanding book that to me is the read of the year.
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- Kit Mclean
- 01-05-23
Amazing, informative
Beautifully woven story around real events and influential people. A factual based fiction book. Starts with almost no fiction and adds more embellishment as the story progresses. A treasure for nerds with a love of literature.
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- Zeynep
- 03-14-23
Science for better or worse
Thank you Benjamin Labatut for telling the stories of science, for better or worse,
in such a brilliant way.
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- caspar
- 01-15-24
Not a fan of how reality and fiction are blended
Performance is great, as is the writing style. Personally, I didn't enjoy how fact and fiction are blended together. Also, the author seems convinced that truly genius breakthroughs require a scientist to push themself to the edge of the abyss. An overdone trope imo.
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