The Impossible Man
Roger Penrose and the Cost of Genius
Published on 28. August 2025
Book
Paperback/Softback
352 pages
978-1-83895-934-0 (ISBN)
Description
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.
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.
Reviews / Votes
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 * Financial Times * A primer to the Penrose understanding of the cosmos, and a remarkable study of the lengths one man has gone to avoid understanding himself. * Daily Telegraph * This biography depicts Sir Roger in multiple dimensions; only a writer as psychologically astute as Barss could show us an impossible man in full. * New York Times * 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. * Kai Bird, Pulitzer Prize-winning biographer and co-author with Martin J. Sherwin of American Prometheus: The Triumph and Tragedy of J. Robert Oppenheimer-the inspiration of Christopher Nolan's film Oppenheimer * 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. * Ananyo Bhattacharya, author of The Man from the Future * 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. * Publishers Weekly (starred review) * 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. * David Schwartz, author of THE LAST MAN WHO KNEW EVERYTHING * A cosmic romance, at once intimate and grand. The Impossible Man is charming and gripping, edifying and soulful, a lot like Roger Penrose himself. * Siobhan Roberts, author of Genius at Play, The Curious Mind of John Horton Conway * Penetrating... The result is a haunting portrait of a brilliant scientist unwilling to confront his personal shortcomings. * Publishers Weekly * In this elegant biography, Barss vividly evokes Penrose's geometric sensibility * The New Yorker * There is something fascinating about the contrast between the smallness and ordinariness of the subject of The Impossible Man and the immensity and scope of his ideas, a contrast that Barss emphasizes with a constant shifting of perspective, zooming out to the scale of the cosmos, then down to the human level. * Times Literary Supplement *More details
Language
English
Place of publication
London
United Kingdom
Illustrations
Integrated photos
Dimensions
Height: 196 mm
Width: 130 mm
Thickness: 35 mm
Weight
320 gr
ISBN-13
978-1-83895-934-0 (9781838959340)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
Additional editions
E-Book
11/2024
Atlantic Books
€9.99
Available for download
Person
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.
Content
1: THE JUNGLE 2: UNEXPECTED SIMPLICITY 3: THE ARROW OF TIME 4: THE IMPOSSIBLE TRIANGLE 5: BLINK BONNIE 6: JABLONNA AND BAARN 7: ASSASSINATION 8: THE SKY IN A DIAMOND 9: THE PENROSE SINGULARITY THEOREM 10: HAWKING AND PENROSE 11: JUDITH DANIELS 12: TRIESTE 13: APERIODIC 14: FAITH