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Today’s thinking man must read this wise book

Seven Brief Lessons on Physics (Italian: Sette brevi lezioni di fisica) is a short book by the Italian physicist Carlo Rovelli. Originally published in Italian in 2014, by 2021 the book has been translated into 52 languages. More than a million copies have been sold, of which more than 400,000 in Italy.

The book condenses the revelations of post-Newtonian physics – from Einstein’s theory of relativity to quantum mechanics – into seven brief, accessible lessons: These were originally serialised in an Italian newspaper.

Rovelli’s uses a literary approach, for instance, highlighting a year Einstein spent apparently aimlessly with the comment that those who don’t waste time, won’t get anywhere.

The Most Beautiful of Theories

The Quanta

The Architecture of the Cosmos

Particles

Grains of Space

Probability, Time and the Heat of Black Holes

Ourselves

Reviews

A surprise bestseller… the most interesting of the year’s science books (Daily Telegraph)

The new cult book… likely to become this year’s stocking-filler sensation (Evening Standard)

Sparse, elegant and most of all readable… at the end of it you feel cleverer. Rovelli has achieved something unheard of in books about theoretical physics: most of the people who have started his book have also probably finished it (Tom Whipple The Times)

Everyone tells me that this year the book to read is Carlo Rovelli’s Seven Brief Lessons on Physics (Guardian)

An understanding of the world requires a basic understanding of physics; something which has just become a little easier thanks to a cult book by an Italian academic which is due to be stuffed into an extraordinary number of stockings this Christmas… Not since Stephen Hawking’s (admittedly hard-going) Brief History of Time has there been such a consensual success in the science book market (Ian Thomson Spectator)

There have been plenty of attempts in recent years to explain the basic concepts of physics to us, but few as elegant and concise as Carlo Rovelli’s… there’s enough food for thought here to last a lifetime (Nick Rennison Daily Mail)

A slim poetic meditation… Rovelli belongs to a great Italian tradition of one-culture science writing that encompasses the Roman poet Lucretius, Galileo, Primo Levi and Italo Calvino. The physics here is comprehensible and limpid, and Rovelli gives it an edge through his clear-eyed humanistic interpretations

(Best science books Independent)

A startling and illustrative distillation of centuries of science… Mr Rovelli moves elegantly between illustrative metaphors, without ever mixing or belabouring any of them… The book’s triumph lies not only in presenting some of the headiest stuff science has produced in so few pages, but also in giving real insight into how science treats those ideas (Economist)

The slim volume is stereotypically the province of poetry, but this beautifully designed little book shows that science, with its curiosity, its intense engagement with what there really is, its readiness to jettison received ways of seeing, is a kind of poetry too (Financial Times)

With luck, Rovelli’s charming, lyrical invitation may well achieve Feynman’s original goal: to get students excited about the biggest questions in physics, inspiring them to dig in and push right to the heart of the unknown (David Kaiser Guardian)

If you want to understand what gets physicists out of bed in the morning, there is no better guide than Rovelli… Seven Brief Lessons on Physics is an absorbing, lovely book… This is physics as romantic poetry and, by God, it’s beguiling (Michael Brooks New Statesman)

Rovelli has a rare knack for conveying the top line of scientific theories in clear and compelling terms without succumbing to the lure of elaborate footnotes… a breath of fresh air (Nicola Davis Observer)

Rovelli’s passion for his chosen field is evident on every page… One can easily imagine perusing these essays while comfortably ensconced in an overstuffed chair by the fire, a snifter of cognac in hand (New York Times Book Review)

It is amazing that such a short book can dig to such satisfying depths (Stephen Curry Guardian)

Wonderfully clear and vivid. Carlo Rovelli manages to convey the mystery of very large things and very small things with brilliant effect (Philip Pullman, author of His Dark Materials)

Utterly blown away by the concise beauty of Seven Brief Lessons on Physics by Carlo Rovelli. Science as poetry. Awe inspiring (Michael Bhaskar, author of The Content Machine)

No one should hold office unless they have read Carlo Rovelli’s Seven Brief Lessons on Physics (Nick Harkaway, author of The Gone-Away World and Angelmaker)

Brilliant… In a mere 78 pages, he paints a magnificent fresco, depicting with sweeping brushstrokes the great ideas and discoveries that revolutionised physics and our understanding of the world in the 20th century… Rovelli writes with clarity and verve, vividly bringing to life concepts that can often appear incomprehensible, and inviting readers to see the world anew. Few writers, let alone physicists, capture the beauty of nature and the excitement of its discovery in such clear, rich prose… It’s hard to imagine a more coherent, inspiring introduction to modern physics. It really is an enchanting little volume (New Scientist)

Delightful… The metaphors are vivid, the visions dramatic (Nature)

Carlo Rovelli explains what makes us who we are, how the universe spins around us (or rather, how it doesn’t) and most importantly how to put your physicist friends on the back foot by casually dropping an equation into polite conversation (Big Issue)

Carlo Rovelli has never been afraid to challenge the status quo (Morgan Freeman Science Channel)

There is enough food for thought in this stylish tour of modern physics to whet the appetite (Richard Lea TLS)

Plain words can be utterly beautiful when they tell a thrilling story. Carlo Rovelli’s words take us on a great adventure as the human mind reaches out to understand the universe. The book is a joy (Alan Alda)

This brief and beautiful introduction to a few key discoveries of modern physics reminds us that the roots of science are curiosity and wonder (Lee Smolin, author of Time Reborn and The Trouble with Physics)

Intense and extremely beautiful (Corriere della Sera)

Scientists are poets and their theories appear to capture the meaning of everything (La Stampa)