A brilliant pair of siblings, André Weil (1906-92) was an influential mathematician, while his sister Simone Weil (1909-43) was a profound Catholic theologian. As she delves into the lives of these two singular French thinkers, Karen Olsson grapples with their intellectual obsessions and rekindles one of her own. For Olsson, as a math major in college and a writer now, it's the odd detours that lead to discovery, to moments of insight. In this blend of biography and memoir, Olsson eloquently explores math as it relates to intellectual history, and shows how sometimes the most inexplicable pursuits turn out to be the most rewarding.

"Beguiling…. A corrective, describing mathematics—its focus, abstraction, odd hunches, blazing epiphanies—as a powerful intoxicant, a door to euphoria."—NYTimes