The Professor of Light

Meggie Singh recounts her life through summers spent in England. Her father, a brilliant physicist and philosopher born in Guyana to East Indian parents, is trying to understand the nature of light. He relies on Meggie's innocence, counting on her to ask the right questions as he searches for the single most important answer--the answer that will allow him to write his "last chapter." This is a fairly simple story, rendered complex by the telling. Interwoven with the basic structure (a series of narratives, each spanning part of a summer as Meggie comes of age), there are folk tales, colorful retellings of the dynamics and psychology of the extended Singh family. These are gorgeous pieces of writing. The book offers a fascinating look at a mind that moves from brilliance into madness through glimpsing the mathematical splendor of the universe. It is also a touching portrait of the way a family regroups around mental illness.