The personal truth of his daily existence must be maddeningly tragic as he can form no connection with what he’s experienced day to day since he was forty seven. The order and structure to the world which mathematics gives is a lifeline for the Professor whose immediate world is so insubstantial because he can’t remember and hold onto it. Where most people of humble origin might find connection with a higher existence through religion, she uses the guidance of the Professor to see how mathematics connects her with something greater: “I felt no fear, certain in the knowledge that the Professor would guide me toward eternal, unchangeable truths.” Nevertheless, she takes pride in what she does and through engaging with mathematics finds a value in how she fits into the equation of the world. The fact that she doesn’t use her own name and lets herself only be referred to as the Housekeeper is a clue to what little importance she attributes to herself. She’s a single mother who gets no assistance from the boy’s father or her mother who rejected her. The Housekeeper has worked diligently her whole life because she needs to make ends meet. I really appreciate fiction which sensitively depicts working class life. In turn, the Housekeeper develops a deeper engagement/relationship with other people and the world around her. He gives this mother and son an appreciation for the beauty of mathematics. As such he wears a suit every day which is covered in notes to remind him about his condition and who the Housekeeper and her son are.

This developed after he received a head injury in a car accident at the age of forty seven. He is an ingenious mathematician but suffers from an illness where he loses all recent memory every eighty minutes. She and her son (who the Professor dubs Root because his head is shaped like the square root symbol) develop a close bond with the Professor. Narrated from the point of view of a single mother and professional cleaner, the Housekeeper tells her story of working for a man she only refers to as the Professor. However, it has a meaning which subtly builds over the course of the story. ‘The Housekeeper and the Professor’ has an easily digestible style of writing and structure. During the long flight from London to Tokyo, I was grateful to have a novel that was fairly simply written but emotionally engaging.

La formula del professore by Yōko Ogawa