Philibert Schogt
The Wild Numbers

The line between genius and madness is a thin one. The Wild Numbers takes us inside the dizzying world of prodigies and madmen.

Poor Isaac. As a mathematician — not an outstanding one, but a competent, unextraordinary pencil-pusher — he's constantly having drummed into him that it's the prodigies of his profession, the burning suns of his little universe that advance human knowledge. The rest of us — why, we just try to understand what has been given to us from on high.

Now Isaac Swift thinks he's found the solution to "Beauregard's Wild Number Problem," the puzzle that has stumped savants the world over for centuries. And Dimitri, his mentor at the university, once a near-great mathematician himself, thinks Isaac is correct. If so, Isaac will have elevated himself to the ranks of the immortals. But now accusations of plagiarism arise, and violence that may not stop at a purely intellectual level looms over the university.

Philibert Schogt was born in 1960 in Amsterdam, the Netherlands, where he lives. The Wild Numbers is his first book. Two of the author's grandparents and a paternal uncle were mathematicians; his grandmother was the first woman to study mathematics at the University of Amsterdam. Schogt himself minored in mathematics while earning a MA in philosophy at the University of Amsterdam.

Advance praise for the wild numbers:

"In a denouement that reveals more about the nature of human desires that about wild numbers, Schogt deftly reveals how intellectual ambition actually feeds — and is fed by — love … Impressive." — ALA Booklist

"Quick, clever … Schogt is a welcome voice: a skillful and energetic storyteller whose timeless tale illustrates the ironies of academic pettiness and ambition." — Publishers Weekly

"If you're looking for a short novel about mathematicians that includes a bit of romance and even a dollop of violence, then The Wild Numbers is for you." — Math Horizons