The running joke in The Rosie Project is that 'Humans often fail to see what is close to them and obvious to others.' This applies first and foremost to Don, who's clearly somewhere on the autism spectrum, and just as clearly oblivious about it. Like Christopher Boone, the 15-year-old narrator of Mark Haddon's 2003 novel, The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time, he's appealing not just despite his eccentricities but because of them. But Simsion's hyper-efficient, fastidious 39-year-old narrator endears us from the moment he starts explaining his Wife Problem, which of course is directly related to his People Problem. The book wouldn't work, of course, if we couldn't see the sweetness and charm beneath Don Tillman's geekiness. If you're looking for sparkling entertainment along the lines of Where'd You Go Bernadette and When Harry Met Sally, The Rosie Project is this season's fix.

It's an utterly winning screwball comedy about a brilliant, emotionally challenged geneticist who's determined to find a suitable wife with the help of a carefully designed questionnaire, and the patently unsuitable woman who keeps distracting him from his search. Put them together, and hilarity ensues in Australian IT consultant Graeme Simsion's first novel, The Rosie Project. She's an edgy young woman whose fallback mode is sarcasm. He's a socially inept scientist who's tone deaf to irony. Your purchase helps support NPR programming. Close overlay Buy Featured Book Title The Rosie Project Author Graeme Simsion

The rosie project novel