The Impossible Man

A Guardian Best Science Book of the Year

The first biography - 'a stunning achievement' (Kai Bird, American Prometheus) - of the dazzling and painful life of Nobel Prize-winning physicist Roger Penrose



When he was six years old, Roger Penrose discovered a sundial in a clearing near his house. Through that machine made of light, shadow, and time, Roger glimpsed a "world behind the world" of transcendently beautiful geometry. It spurred him on a journey to become one of the world's most influential mathematicians, philosophers, and physicists.



Penrose would prove the limitations of general relativity, set a new agenda for theoretical physics, and astound colleagues and admirers with the elegance and beauty of his discoveries. However, as Patchen Barss documents in The Impossible Man, success came at a price: He was attuned to the secrets of the universe, but struggled to connect with loved ones, especially the women who care for or worked with him.



Both erudite and poetic, The Impossible Man draws on years of research and interviews, as well as previously unopened archives to present a moving portrait of Penrose the Nobel Prize-winning scientist and Roger the human being. It reveals not just the extraordinary life of Roger Penrose, but asks who gets to be a genius, and who makes the sacrifices that allow one man to be one.



Patchen Barss is a Toronto-based science journalist who has contributed to the BBC, Nautilus Magazine, Scientific American, and the Discovery Channel (Canada), as well as to many science and natural history museums. His previous books include The Erotic Engine: How Pornography has Powered Mass Communication, from Gutenberg to Google, and Flow Spin Grow: Looking for Patterns in Nature.



Patchen Barss shows in his beautifully composed and revealing biography The Impossible Man [that] 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



A primer to the Penrose understanding of the cosmos, and a remarkable study of the lengths one man has gone to avoid understanding himself.



This biography depicts Sir Roger in multiple dimensions; only a writer as psychologically astute as Barss could show us an impossible man in full.



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.



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.



A penetrating, warts and all biography... Barss's sensitive handling of Penrose's tumultuous personal life puts this a notch above other "great minds" biographies... The result is a haunting portrait of a brilliant scientist unwilling to confront his personal shortcomings.



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.



A cosmic romance, at once intimate and grand. The Impossible Man is charming and gripping, edifying and soulful, a lot like Roger Penrose himself.



Penetrating... The result is a haunting portrait of a brilliant scientist unwilling to confront his personal shortcomings.



In this elegant biography, Barss vividly evokes Penrose's geometric sensibility