Think you know books? Try our new Book Trivia!

Book Summary and Reviews of The Mathematician's Shiva by Stuart Rojstaczer

The Mathematician's Shiva by Stuart Rojstaczer

The Mathematician's Shiva

by Stuart Rojstaczer

  • Readers' Rating (1):
  • Published:
  • Sep 2014, 384 pages
  • Rate this book

About this book

Book Summary

Alexander "Sasha" Karnokovitch and his family would like to mourn the passing of his mother, Rachela, with modesty and dignity. But Rachela, a famous Polish émigré mathematician and professor at the University of Wisconsin, is rumored to have solved the million-dollar, Navier-Stokes Millennium Prize problem. Rumor also has it that she spitefully took the solution to her grave.

To Sasha's chagrin, a ragtag group of socially challenged mathematicians arrives in Madison and crashes the shiva, vowing to do whatever it takes to find the solution - even if it means prying up the floorboards for Rachela's notes.

Written by a Ph.D. geophysicist, this hilarious and multi-layered debut novel brims with colorful characters and brilliantly captures humanity's drive not just to survive, but to solve the impossible.

Paperback Original

Membership Advantages
  • Reviews
  • "Beyond the Book" articles
  • Free books to read and review (US only)
  • Find books by time period, setting & theme
  • Read-alike suggestions by book and author
  • Book club discussions
  • and much more!
  • Just $60 for 12 months or $20 for 3 months.
  • More about membership!

Reviews

Media Reviews

"It's bad enough that Alexander "Sasha" Karnokovitch has lost his mother, Rachela, but he can't even mourn in peace. After all, Rachela was one of the most brilliant minds in mathematics and her fellow professionals descend on Madison to pay their respects. Convinced that Rachela has privately solved one of the most complex problems in the field, the mathematicians have an ulterior agenda: to unearth the proof that they are convinced she has left behind.

This lighthearted core is interspersed with Sasha's childhood memories as well as excerpts from Rachela's "memoir" providing glimpses of her surviving the horrors of Nazism. The narrative lurches forward as it moves between these different perspectives and tones. The novel's bulk is taken up by the machinations of the mathematicians at Rachela's Shiva. This part feels occasionally stilted especially since the scholars are often painted as caricatures, brilliant minds who are lacking in social skills. Rojstaczer shows plenty of promise while exploring Sasha's relationship with his mother -- her domineering presence and outsized intellect leave him flailing for much of his childhood -- but unfortunately these angles of the story remain underexplored. Despite these shortcomings, there's plenty in here to showcase this debut author's talent." - BookBrowse


"High math, Eastern European history, and American culture converge in this hugely entertaining debut from geophysicist Rojstaczer." - Publishers Weekly

This information about The Mathematician's Shiva was first featured in "The BookBrowse Review" - BookBrowse's membership magazine, and in our weekly "Publishing This Week" newsletter. Publication information is for the USA, and (unless stated otherwise) represents the first print edition. The reviews are necessarily limited to those that were available to us ahead of publication. If you are the publisher or author and feel that they do not properly reflect the range of media opinion now available, send us a message with the mainstream reviews that you would like to see added.

Any "Author Information" displayed below reflects the author's biography at the time this particular book was published.

Membership Advantages
  • Reviews
  • "Beyond the Book" articles
  • Free books to read and review (US only)
  • Find books by time period, setting & theme
  • Read-alike suggestions by book and author
  • Book club discussions
  • and much more!
  • Just $60 for 12 months or $20 for 3 months.
  • More about membership!

Author Information

Stuart Rojstaczer

Stuart Rojstaczer was raised in Milwaukee and has degrees from the University of Wisconsin, the University of Illinois, and Stanford. For many years, he was a professor of geophysics at Duke University. He lives in Northern California.

More Author Information

Membership Advantages
  • Reviews
  • "Beyond the Book" articles
  • Free books to read and review (US only)
  • Find books by time period, setting & theme
  • Read-alike suggestions by book and author
  • Book club discussions
  • and much more!
  • Just $60 for 12 months or $20 for 3 months.
  • More about membership!

More Recommendations

Readers Also Browsed . . .

more literary fiction...

Membership Advantages
  • Reviews
  • "Beyond the Book" articles
  • Free books to read and review (US only)
  • Find books by time period, setting & theme
  • Read-alike suggestions by book and author
  • Book club discussions
  • and much more!
  • Just $60 for 12 months or $20 for 3 months.
  • More about membership!

BookBrowse Book Club

  • Book Jacket
    The Tapestry of Time
    by Kate Heartfield
    Love, war, and the supernatural collide in this dazzling historical fantasy by international bestselling author Kate Heartfield.

Members Recommend

  • Book Jacket

    The World's Greatest Detective and Her Just Okay Assistant
    by Liza Tully

    A great detective's young assistant yearns for glory, but first they have learn to get along in this delightful feel good mystery.

Win This Book
Win These Blue Mountains

These Blue Mountains by Sarah Loudin Thomas

"[An] atmospheric tale of unexpected hope." —Lisa Wingate, New York Times bestselling author

Enter

Book
Trivia

  • Book Trivia

    Can you name the title?

    Test your book knowledge with our daily trivia challenge!

Wordplay

Solve this clue:

W the C A the M W P

and be entered to win..

Your guide toexceptional          books

BookBrowse seeks out and recommends the best in contemporary fiction and nonfiction—books that not only engage and entertain but also deepen our understanding of ourselves and the world around us.