The instant Sunday Times bestseller -- a beautiful story of rebellion and scienceIn June 1925, twenty-three-year-old Werner Heisenberg, suffering from hay fever, had retreated to the treeless, wind-battered island of Helgoland in the North Sea in order to think. Walking all night, by dawn he had wrestled with an idea that would transform the whole of science and our very conception of the world.In Helgoland Carlo Rovelli tells the story of the birth of quantum physics and its bright young founders who were to become some of the most famous Nobel winners in science. It is a celebration of youthful rebellion and intellectual revolution. An invitation to a magical place.Here Rovelli illuminates competing interpretations of this science and offers his own original view, describing the world we touch as a fabric woven by relations. Where we, as every other thing around us, exist in our interactions with one another, in a never-ending game of mirrors.A dazzling work from a celebrated scientist and master storyteller, Helgoland transports us to dizzying heights, reminding us of the many pleasures of the life of the mind.Translated by Erica Segre and Simon CarnellChosen as a Book of the Year by The Times, Financial Times, Sunday Times, Guardian and Prospect Review Popular science has rarely been so good ― ProspectThe greatest populariser of physics today. . . We are left in a world that is not disenchanted by science, but even more magical. A triumph -- Julian Baggini ― Financial TimesTheoretical physics often feels rather mystical. This mind-bending, lively book by the bestselling physicist Carlo Rovelli reinforces that other-wordly feeling. . . unforgettable ― The TimesRovelli is often called the poet of physics. He writes elegant, wondering, enlarging books on time and quantum theory, much in the spirit of a priest bringing the word of God to his congregation, and I've found it good for my soul to be confronted with how little I understand the world and everything in it -- Sarah Perry ― Guardian One of the warmest, most elegant and most lucid interpreters of the dazzling enigmas of his discipline. . . A momentous book -- John Banville ― Wall Street JournalHis most beautiful book yet. . .leaves an unforgettable impression of its author as a man struggling at the furthest limits of human comprehension -- James Marriot ― The TimesA deep-thinking, restlessly inquiring spirit. . . His books continue a tradition of popular scientific writing from Galileo to Darwin that disappeared in the academic specialisations of the past century -- Ian Thomson ― ObserverAnother brilliant book by Rovelli. . . You'll have fun -- Clive Cookson ― Financial Times If anyone can make sense of the topsy-turvy, counterintuitive world of quantum physics, it is Carlo Rovelli, the most poetically minded of today's science communicators ― The TimesA remarkably wide-ranging new meditation on quantum theory. . . With the light touch of a skilled storyteller. . . Rovelli is not afraid to mix quantum physics and eastern philosophy -- Manjit Kumar ― GuardianA great tonic for long-isolated minds . . . a thrilling story, written with Rovelli's accustomed wit and panache. After reading him, you'll look at the grains of beach sand between your toes with an entirely new eye ― Irish IndependentInspiring. . . Without mathematics or experiment, by page 81 your thoughts are at the frontier of quantum theory -- Alexander Masters ― SpectatorA delight . . . it is a pleasure to travel in R