The Boy Who Dreamed of Infinity
a tale of the genius Ramanujan
forthcoming from candlewick press, spring 2020
A young mathematical genius from India searches for the secrets hidden inside numbers — and for someone who understands him — in this gorgeous picture-book biography.
A mango . . . is just one thing. But if I chop it in two, then chop the half in two, and keep on chopping, I get more and more bits, on and on, endlessly, to an infinity I could never ever reach.
In 1887 in India, a boy named Ramanujan is born with a passion for numbers. He sees numbers in the squares of light pricking his thatched roof and in the beasts dancing on the temple tower. He writes mathematics with his finger in the sand, across the pages of his notebooks, and with chalk on the temple floor. “What is small?” he wonders. “What is big?” Head in the clouds, Ramanujan struggles in school — but his mother knows that her son and his ideas have a purpose. As he grows up, Ramanujan reinvents much of modern mathematics, but where in the world could he find someone to understand what he has conceived?
Hardcover | $17.99 | Published by Candlewick
Apr 14, 2020 | 48 Pages | 7-7/8 x 11 | 5-9 years | ISBN 9780763690489
The boy who dreamed of infinity
This picture book biography tells the story of a shy South Indian boy who sets out on a quest to discover the secrets of numbers. Despite poverty and lack of education, he eventually becomes one of the world's greatest mathematical geniuses.
Illustrator: Daniel Miyares
This recent book illustrated by Daniel Miyares is a beautiful example of the depth of feeling and skill Miyares will bring to this project. This image of a boy free, finally realizing his dreams, brings to mind Ramanujan's passionate mathematical journey. Check out Daniel Miyares website to see more.
My BackStory
When I was five years old on a trip to England with my mathematician father, George Andrews, he discovered the Lost Notebook of Ramanujan in the Wren Library, forgotten for over half a century in a box of dusty papers. Stay tuned for a digital, interactive rendition of this backstory!
Check out the gallery of my trip to the Toronto Film Festival for the opening of biopic of Ramanujan and coming soon, a gallery of my research trip to South India.