'Mesmerizing...an exquisite rendering of what one might call feelings at the subatomic level.' -The New York Times From the author of Heaven and Earth, a sensational novel about whether a 'prime number' can ever truly connect with someone else A prime number is a lonely thing. It can only be divided by itself or by one, and it never truly fits with another. Alice and Mattia are both 'primes'--misfits haunted by early tragedies. When the two meet as teenagers, they recognize in each other a kindred, damaged spirit. Years later, a chance encounter reunites them and forces a lifetime of concealed emotion to the surface. But can two prime numbers ever find a way to be together? A brilliantly conceived and elegantly written debut novel, The Solitude of Prime Numbers is a stunning meditation on loneliness, love, and what it means to be human.