“As Toronto-based science journalist Patchen Barss shows in his beautifully composed and revealing biography The Impossible Man, Penrose’s exceptional talent for solving the hidden patterns and puzzles in the universe has long contrasted with his struggle to fit into the world of people… Barss, in addition to adeptly explaining complex concepts such as the singularity theorem, makes skilful and sensitive use of Penrose’s archive”
Anjana Ahuja, Weekend Financial Times
A notch above other ‘great minds’ biographies.
Publishers Weekly (starred review)
Superb insights into a flawed genius.
Kirkus (starred review)
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: The Visionary Ideas of John von Neumann
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, The Curious Mind of John Horton Conway
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 best-selling biography of Richard Feynman. The Impossible Man is a stunning achievement.
Kai Bird, Pulitzer Prize-winning biographer, and co-author with Martin J. Sherwin of American Prometheus: The Triumph and Tragedy of J. Robert Oppenheimer
Patchen Barss uses the skills of a fine novelist to tell the story of one of the true giants of 20th 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