The Goddess of Small Victories : A Novel of Gödel's Wife

Princeton University, 1980. A young and unambitious librarian named Anna Roth is assigned the task of retrieving the records of Kurt Gödel--the most fascinating and hermetic mathematician of the 20th century. Her mission consists of befriending and ultimately taming the great man's widow, Adele, a notoriously bitter woman set on taking belated revenge against the establishment by refusing to hand over these documents of immeasurable historical value. But as Anna soon finds out, Adele has a story of her own to tell. Through descriptions of Princeton and Vienna after the war, the occupation of Austria by the Nazis, the pressures of McCarthyism, the end of the positivist ideal, and the advent of nuclear weapons, Anna discovers firsthand the epic story of a genius who could never quite find his place in the world, and the private torment of the woman who loved him. An internationally best-selling debut novel about the life, marriage, and legacy of one of the greatest mathematicians of the last century Princeton University 1980.Kurt Gdel, the most fascinating, though hermetic, mathematician of the twentieth century, has just died of anorexia.His widow, Adele, a fierce woman shunned by her husbands colleagues because she had been a cabaret dancer, is now consigned to a nursing home. To the great annoyance of the Institute of Advanced Studies, she refuses to hand over Gdels precious records. Anna Roth, the timid daughter of two mathematicians who are part of the Princeton clique, isgiven the difficult task of befriending Adele and retrieving the documents from her. As Adele begins to notice Annas own estrangement from her milieu and starts to trust her, she opens the gates of her memory and together they travel back to Vienna during the Nazi era, Princeton right after the war, the pressures of McCarthyism, the end of the positivist ideal, and the advent of nuclear weapons.It is this epic story of a genius who could never quite find his place in the world, and the determination of the woman who loved him, that will eventually give Anna the courage to change her own life. Step into the world of Kurt Gödel : his life, his marriage, his friendship with Einstein, and his legacy in this internationally best-selling novel. Princeton University, 1980. Kurt Gödel, the most fascinating, though hermetic, mathematician of the twentieth century, has just died of anorexia. His widow, Adele, a fierce woman shunned by her husband’s colleagues because she had been a cabaret dancer, is now consigned to a nursing home. To the great annoyance of the Institute of Advanced Studies, she refuses to hand over Gödel’s precious records. Anna Roth is given the difficult task of befriending Adele and retrieving the documents from her. As Adele opens the gates of her memory, the two women travel back into the life she shared with her enigmatic husband: Vienna during the Nazi era, Princeton right after the war, the pressures of McCarthyism, the end of the positivist ideal, and the advent of nuclear weapons. Yannick Grannec brilliantly narrates the epic story of a genius who could never quite find his place in the world, and the determination of the woman who loved him. "Princeton University, 1980. A young and unambitious librarian named Anna Roth is assigned the task of retrieving the records of Kurt Go˜del--the most fascinating and hermetic mathematician of the 20th century. Her mission consists of befriending and ultimately taming the great man's widow Adele, a notoriously bitter woman set on taking belated revenge against the establishment by refusing to hand over these documents of immeasurable historical value. But as Anna soon finds out, Adele has a story of her own to tell"--Amazon.com. "Princeton University, 1980. A young and unambitious librarian named Anna Roth is assigned the task of retrieving the records of Kurt Gödel--the most fascinating and hermetic mathematician of the 20th century. Her mission consists of befriending and ultimately taming the great man's widow Adele, a notoriously bitter woman set on taking belated revenge against the establishment by refusing to hand over these documents of immeasurable historical value. But as Anna soon finds out, Adele has a story of her own to tell"--Amazon.com