THE SOLITUDE OF PRIME NUMBERS (PAOLO GIORDANO)

The story centers around three main characters: Alice, Michela and Mattia. Alice lives with her parents and has always defied them in some way. When she was younger she hated attending ski school and at age fifteen she wanted a tattoo but her father told her "no", that when she turned eighteen and was paying her own way, she could then get a tattoo. Michela and Mattia are twins but Michela suffers from mental problems and is quite behind developmentally. One day Michela and Mattia are invited to a birthday party but Mattia is too embarrassed to take his sister so instead, he drops her off at a park and tells her not to move that he'd be back in half and hour to pick her up. When Mattia returns, Michela is gone! As Mattia and Alice grow they become friends but Pietro Balossino, Mattia's father, is tired of trying to infiltrate his son's strange and obscure world. He had spent many nights searching the house for sharp objects after seeing the scars on Mattia's arms. Pietro thought so much about one day finding his son face down on a blood soaked pillow that he is already thinking of his son as non-existant. This is a coming-of-age story, a love story, a story of loneliness with a touch of melancholy and a depiction of damaged soul mates whose hearts are kindred spirits. This debut novel was a complete joy to read!! April 13, 2011