The Impossible Man

""A penetrating, warts and all biography of Nobel Prize-winning physicist Roger Penrose... Barss's sensitive handling of Penrose's tumultuous personal life puts this a notch above other 'great minds' biographies... a haunting portrait of a brilliant scientist unwilling to confront his personal shortcomings.""--Publishers Weekly (starred review) ""Superb insights into a flawed genius.""--Kirkus (starred review) ""A cosmic romance, at once intimate and grand. The Impossible Man is charming and gripping, edifying and soulful, a lot like Roger Penrose himself.""--Siobhan Roberts, author of Genius at Play ""Barss uses the skills of a fine novelist to tell the story of one of the true giants of twentieth-century mathematics and physics, Roger Penrose, in a biography that reveals the complex and compelling character of the man alongside the importance of his contributions to geometry, relativity, and a wide range of other fields. The biography that Penrose deserves.""--David N. Schwartz, author of The Last Man Who Knew Everything ""One day in 1965, Roger Penrose is crossing a London street and suddenly his imagination is working in four dimensions. The result is an insight that transforms Einstein's relativity theorem. Patchen Barss writes lyrically about this scientific quest, but he also explores the frail human side of Penrose's journey. The result is a page-turner reminiscent of James Gleick's Genius, the bestselling biography of Richard Feynman. The Impossible Man is a stunning achievement.""--Kai Bird, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of American Prometheus ""Phenomenal: blisteringly candid, elegiac, and utterly compelling, The Impossible Man strips away the myths to expose the frailties and foibles of a mathematical genius who inspired generations. A new landmark of scientific biography.""--Ananyo Bhattacharya, author of The Man from the Future