When We Cease to Understand the World cover art

When We Cease to Understand the World

 Preview
Try Premium Plus free
1 credit a month to buy any audiobook in our entire collection.
Access to thousands of additional audiobooks and Originals from the Plus Catalogue.
Member-only deals & discounts.
Auto-renews at $16.45/mo after 30 days. Cancel anytime.

When We Cease to Understand the World

By: Benjamín Labatut
Narrated by: Adam Barr
Try Premium Plus free

$16.45 per month after 30 days. Cancel anytime.

Buy Now for $21.99

Buy Now for $21.99

About this listen

Shortlisted for the 2021 International Booker Prize.

A Guardian Fiction Book of the year.

Sometimes discovery brings destruction.

When We Cease to Understand the World shows us great minds striking out into dangerous, uncharted terrain.

Fritz Haber, Alexander Grothendieck, Werner Heisenberg, Erwin Schrödinger: these are among the luminaries into whose troubled minds we are thrust as they grapple with the most profound questions of existence. They have strokes of unparalleled genius, they alienate friends and lovers, they descend into isolated states of madness. Some of their discoveries revolutionise our world for the better; others pave the way to chaos and unimaginable suffering. The lines are never clear.

With breakneck pace and wondrous detail, Benjamín Labatut uses the imaginative resources of fiction to break open the stories of scientists and mathematicians who expanded our notions of the possible.

©2020 Benjamín Labatut (P)2021 Pushkin Press Biographical Fiction Contemporary Fiction Genre Fiction Psychological Fiction Biography

Critic Reviews

A monstrous and brilliant book.
-- Philip Pullman

Wholly mesmerising and revelatory... Completely fascinating.
-- William Boyd
All stars
Most relevant  
Clever and interesting fictionalisation. Complex scientific theories are accessible and even enjoyable listening. Some beautiful imagery and evocative language.

Fascinating reading

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
What a loaded and complex multi layered ride! It's a kaleidoscope of fantastic and bizarre events. I loved it. Needs a few reads

A complex multi layered ride!

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
The first half of this book is mesmerising. I wish it weren’t fiction, because it spotlights important 20th century figures with interesting stories and exemplary achievements. It explores whether a brilliant mind equals a deeply troubled mind. It lost me completely in the last half when the stories veered off, perhaps trying to connect the previous characters… it didn’t achieve a plot, if that’s what the author was attempting.

Maybe I didn’t get it…

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
entertaining and compelling introduction to the painful birth of quantum physics. the mathematicians and physicists involved c9me to life. didn't want it to end!

compelling science history

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
after a good start the story became flat....no climax and it is not clear the writer's final objective.

good but not fantastic,

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Could not finish it a total waste of space. One could hardly call it a novel.

most depressing book I have ever read

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
A work of fiction dedicated to discourage kids to pursue progress, implies that we have a limit and when we get close to it we crash and burn and cause horrors.. unnecessarily pessimistic and mystical, uninformed and irresponsible sold as work of art...

Romanticized pessimism

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
In the spirit of reconciliation, Audible acknowledges the Traditional Custodians of country throughout Australia and their connections to land, sea and community. We pay our respect to their elders past and present and extend that respect to all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples today.