The Housekeeper and the Professor in Around the Year in 52 Books

May 06, 2022 Jen K rated it it was amazing

Beautiful story about the relationship between a math professor, his housekeeper and her 10 year old son. The professor had already gone through 9 housekeepers when the newest one arrived. Due to a brain injury from a car accident, the professor only remembers up to 1975 and the last 80 minutes of his life, when uncertain he reverts to numbers. Everyday the professor and the housekeeper meet anew. He asks her questions about the numbers in her life as a way to acquaint himself such as her shoe s ...more

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Mar 17, 2018 Viktoriya rated it it was amazing

Shelves: 2018, library

WOW!!!!! I feel like I was holding my breath ever since I opened this book and now I can finally breath again (I simply forgot how to breathe while reading this). Read it in one sitting and couldn't tear myself away for this novel. It is very slim, but it holds a lot! It is about building relationships when you only have the present, when all memories get erased after 80 minutes. Is it possible do it?
Novel is full of complex mathematical equations, and theories, it is full of baseball and game ...more

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Feb 25, 2022 Hannah Peterson rated it liked it

Shelves: aty-2022, in-translation

I really love books that inspire wonder from mathematics and I also am deeply fascinated with memory and I have recently had great success with Japanese literature, so I was eagerly anticipating this one. But I ended up finding it just good, not as transcendent as I was hoping.

I think my main issue was that I'm not particularly fond of the celebrity/fan dynamic and even though obviously the Professor is not a celebrity in any way, this book kind of played into a similar thing. The Housekeeper i ...more

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