There's no end to the fun.īut why is such an appreciation of numbers of significance in a piece of fiction about amnesia? I think the answer to this question is best found through a comparison: The American novelist, Nicole Krauss, published her first book, Man Walks Into a Room, in 2002. And the discovery of new families increases the possible connections among all the families. There are so many interesting genetic modifications, so many hidden liaisons, so many queer numbers waiting, and proudly wanting, to be outed.

Plotting out the sister and brothers and cousins and aunts and the in-laws of numerical familial relations is what keeps mathematicians up at night. They may be members of different families simultaneously. Numbers, as living things, of course interbreed. The numbers themselves have always known this, we as thinking human beings who aren't numbers, took some considerable time to recognise the fact. All the numbers, 1 to n, in this family are related to each other and have this name. But that is just this number's first name, as it were. Thus the sum of all the numbers from 1 to 10 equals 55. The ultimate mathematical accolade afforded to any number is to give it a family name, a formula by which all its relatives can be identified, even those we haven't met yet. Some may be hidden in infinity, some are waiting, desperate to be identified, and some may even be the last of their line, but we can't be sure. Some are rare, some shy, some awkward, some maddeningly unpredictable. They are living species with distinctive genetic characteristics, with real family resemblances and lasting relationships, indeed with personalities. But there is a connection and it is fundamental and profound.įor a mathematician, defined by intensity of temperament not level of education, numbers are not simply classified as 'kinds' or 'types'. This melange constitutes the cast of a charming story of mathematics and love, subjects with a connection that is less than obvious. The Professor is of mathematics and has amnesia the housekeeper is devoted and has a son. And they're all here in The Housekeeper and the Professor, which Ms. Numbers are everywhere - Real, Natural, Imaginary, Perfect, Amicable, Abundant, Deficient, Triangular, Prime (including both Mersenne and Pernicious as well as Twins) to name a few.

La formula del professore by Yōko Ogawa