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Nothing is everything, therefore there is nothing it cannot be. Reading like an insoluble Zen riddle, this is also the premise of Barrow's latest tour-de-force in the world of mathematics. Tackling it more as a detective than the Cambridge research professor he is, he uses common examples and a style of writing found in thrillers to pull the reader through the chinks of reason into the greater reality which may or may not ultimately govern our world. Barrow's journey to uncover the origins of zero and the concept of, quite literally, nothing, starts with the Mayans, the ancient Greeks and the Phoenicians before touching on the Middle Ages on route to our times. In the process he lays open the fact that the development of mathematics is closely woven in faith, culture, organized religion, the concept of God and one's personal belief system. Whether he is busy explaining why Einstein needed to have space filled with either of just how Michelson measured the speed of light, Barrow brims with enthusiasm. It was Galileo who famously said 'Mathematics is the language in which God wrote the universe'. It has taken Barrow, however, to make it truly accessible. (Kirkus UK)
