In 2006, an eccentric Russian mathematician named Grigori Perelman solved one of the world's greatest intellectual puzzles. The Poincare conjecture is an extremely complex topological problem that had eluded the best minds for over a century. In 2000, the Clay Institute in Boston named it one of seven great unsolved mathematical problems, and promised a million dollars to anyone who could find a solution. Perelman was awarded the prize this year - and declined the money. Journalist Masha Gessen was determined to find out why. Drawing on interviews with Perelman's teachers, classmates, coaches, teammates, and colleagues in Russia and the US - and informed by her own background as a maths whiz raised in Russia - she set out to uncover the nature of Perelman's astonishing abilities. In telling Perelman's story, Masha Gessen has constructed a gripping and tragic tale that sheds rare light on the unique burden of genius. 'Gessen provides a thorough account of the circumstances that led to Perelman's rise in the 'vicious, backstabbing little world' of Soviet mathematics and a brilliant reconstruction of the twisted logic that might have led to his mysterious exit. In so doing she has written something rare: an accessible book about an unreachable man.' New York Times
