When We Cease to Understand the World

By: Benjamin Labatut, Adrian West - translator

Narrated by: Adam Barr

When We Cease to Understand the World is a book about the complicated links between scientific and mathematical discovery, madness, and destruction. Fritz Haber, Alexander Grothendieck, Werner Heisenberg, Erwin Schrödinger - these are some of the luminaries into whose troubled lives Benjamín Labatut thrusts the listener, showing us how they grappled with the most profound questions of existence. They have strokes of unparalleled genius, alienate friends and lovers, descend into isolation and insanity. Some of their discoveries reshape human life for the better; others pave the way to chaos and unimaginable suffering. The lines are never clear. At a breakneck pace and with a wealth of disturbing detail, Labatut uses the imaginative resources of fiction to tell the stories of the scientists and mathematicians who expanded our notions of the possible.

©2021 Benjamin Labatut and Adrian West (P)2021 Dreamscape Media, LLC

A new insight into mad genius

I throughly enjoyed the individual portraits of prominent scientists from the last century. The author neatly tied together the several lives he featured by tethering to them common themes so it felt as though they overlapped in time and space.

What I would have really appreciated would be integrating more scientists outside of quantum physics that helped further the understanding of astronomy, chemistry, geology, and computer science but with similar ties between them. And feature more than a select few of German scientists. I understand that was the hotbed of quantum theory, but he could have broaden his list of included scientists to show just how radical the few really were.

Overall, it was a fantastic but limited perspective. Yet I will likely listen to it again in the future for another impression.

Quantum Physics for Poets

A great book read well. This was fun and terrifying all at once, a fantastic mix of fact and fiction that helped this lit major better understand some of science’s toughest concepts.

Titillating

The author did an admirable job of taking extraordinarily complex concepts and putting them in a layperson’s understanding. I found the details unnecessarily titillating; the description of private thoughts and actions made me doubt the veracity of the narrative.

Fascinating content

The storytelling was captivating and kept me listening. I stopped a few times due to various reasons but certainly not because the story was boring.

the true heir w.g. sebald

Labatut is the true heir of W.G. Sebald. No higher praise could be given. The narration is equal to the text.

This is a book is poetic, narrative non-fiction. There are moments of psychological experience which are projected or imagined: not derived precisely from sources but imagined or inferred based on familiarity with overall context and the characters in play. There are also moments of mythologization—where a lyrical transmutation of events reveals a truth deeper than what can be squeezed out of transcripts. But to call it fiction is misunderstand and depreciate the unless we understand that all history—anything above and beyond pure, opaque and unprocessed data (anything deserving of the name of history)—contains elements of fiction. Language acts are descriptive, not objective. That goes for history as well.

Like many things, better the second time around

My niece gave me this astonishing book which starts like straightforward (though bizarre) science writing and morphs into surrealism, finally revealing a character called the author. I wanted a reprise. Like complex music that becomes richer once you have memorized it, I wanted a second look. From Prussian Blue to cyanide to Zyklon B to Heisenberg’s struggle with quantum physics, there is much to chew on. I suspect, however, that it is better to read the book before listening to the audiobook.

Fascinating

Delve into a world of brilliant physicists. Unusual personalities and their influences and obsessions. Though provoking.

Inspiring, and Devastating

One of those books where you finish it and want to find any other book in the same genre and realize it stands alone. I’m haunted.

Intriguing

This book continued to draw me back in over and over- I couldn’t stop listening and actually looked forward to my commute. I found the content wildly interesting, and thoroughly enjoyed the storytelling perspective of a complex humanity even to those beyond the normal intellectual ability. I highly recommend!

One of the best ever

Spell-binding content

Shows how paradoxical beginnings can

How unexpected these events are, that shaped the foundation of our belief today


The epilogue wasn’t that useful, IMO