ederlands N letterenfonds dutch foundation for literature Quality Non- Fiction from Holland no. 16 autumn 2011 Vincent van der Noort The Numbers Are Your Best Friends Foundation Confessions of a nerd The most beautiful of all mathematics, writes young mathematician Vincent van der Noort (b. 1980) Dutch Foundation The Dutch Foundation for Literature stimulates interest Vincent van der Noort, involves problems you could explain to a child studied mathematics at the for Literature in Dutch literary fiction, non-fiction, poetry and children’s University of Amsterdam and yet which even the cleverest thinkers are as yet unable solve. Better still, Nieuwe Prinsengracht 89 books by providing information and granting translation gained his doctorate at the 1018 VR Amsterdam the fact that professional mathematicians are stumped does not put it Tel. +31 20 520 73 00 subsidies. The foundation maintains contacts with a University of Utrecht on the Fax +31 20 520 73 99 large number of international publishers, and has a beyond the bounds of possibility that an eleven-year-old will come up subject of symmetries in spaces The Netherlands stand at major international book fairs, including the with the answer one morning under the shower. whose dimensions are infinite. [email protected] www.letterenfonds.nl Frankfurt Book Fair, the London Book Fair and the He has been a supervisor at Beijing Book Fair. mathematics camps for school- Non-Fiction Numbers Are Your Best Friends presents a broad selection of mathematical Maarten Valken, children and currently works as [email protected] Translation Grants problems, insights, theories, games, observations, even mathematical a maths teacher. Fiction Foreign publishers wishing to publish translations of Dutch poems and mysteries, ranging from the simple and amusing to the Henk Pröpper, or Frisian literature, including children’s literature, quality demanding and abstract. But Van der Noort is even more interested in the It must be great to have Vincent [email protected] non-fiction and poetry, may apply for a subsidy towards the feelings evoked by numbers, symmetries and patterns, since these explain van der Noort as a teacher. Victor Schiferli, translation costs. De Volkskrant what it is to be a mathematician. The result is a remarkable book of [email protected] Having acquired the publishing rights to a Dutch or Children’s Books Frisian literary work, the publisher’s application for a popular science, candid and perceptive, able both to enthuse readers and Publishing Details Agnes Vogt, to move them. [email protected] subsidy must be accompanied by a copy of the contract Getallen zijn je beste vrienden. Poetry between the foreign publisher and the owner of the Dutch Take prime numbers, whole numbers that can be divided only by Ontboezemingen van een nerd Thomas Möhlmann, rights, and a copy of the contract with the translator. themselves or 1. Are they part of an infinite series? Yes. Can we predict how (2011) [email protected] Publishers must make use of specific application forms 309 pp. (93,700 words) many there are below a given number? No, say the mathematicians. Yet for which are available from the foundation. With black-and-white illustrations, all their intellectual efforts we cannot be certain even of that. We do know notes and references Considerations that they become increasingly rare, since the larger the number, the more 3,000 copies sold In deciding whether or not to grant a subsidy, the foundation smaller numbers there are that it could be divided into, but this tells us takes account of the following considerations: nothing about the distribution or even the prevalence of large prime Rights – the literary quality of the book Athenaeum—Polak & Van Gennep numbers. Prime numbers, says Van der Noort, are fascinating but aloof – the status of the publisher Singel 262 – the quality of the translator creatures in the mathematical world, rather like cats, ‘and you can never NL - 1016 AC Amsterdam If the translator is unknown to the foundation, a sample be sure whether the affection is mutual’. The Netherlands translation is required. This will be evaluated by external This warm, personal tone is what makes Numbers Are Your Best t +31 (0)20 551 12 99 advisors. The maximum possible subsidy is 70% of the total Friends far more than just another book about mathematical insights and f +31 (0)20 551 12 54 cost of translation. Applications for subsidies for translations [email protected] trivia. Van der Noort genuinely loves numbers and is able to convince which have already been published will not be considered. www.uitgeverijathenaeum.nl readers that such love is far more important, even to professional mathe- maticians, than technical skill or a highly developed brain. Numbers are personalities, and you are introduced to them in early childhood. You know how they think, how they feel and who they are. Some are good company, others are surly or supercilious. This is the foundation of mathematical insight, claims Van der Noort, and whoever studies mathe- matics (voluntarily or not) must learn to get along with them, for all their faults and virtues. It’s a shame that by the time they leave school, so many people have become traumatized by maths and seem never to get over their dislike. That fact was a major starting point for this book. A successful attempt to get people to be more aware of their irrational associations with numbers. Quality Non-Fiction From Holland Page 2 Quality Non-Fiction From Holland Photo: Catherine Hermans Page 3 Dick Swaab Fik Meijer We Are Our Brains The Mediterranean Sea From the womb to Alzheimer’s A personal history Dick Swaab is professor emeritus For many years the prevailing belief in the developed world has been Fik Meijer, professor of Ancient ‘I’m deeply ashamed.’ Those of neurobiology at the University that upbringing determines what a child will become. Everything that History at the University of are the remarkable closing of Amsterdam and was for thirty Amsterdam from 1992 to 2007, can go wrong in later life is therefore the fault of the parents and, more words of the latest book by years director of the Netherlands is a specialist in maritime history. Institute for Brain Research. He broadly, society. The same train of thought suggests that many illnesses His publications on the subject Fik Meijer, respected academic found international fame with his can be blamed on unhealthy lifestyles and therefore on the patient. In include St. Paul’s Voyage to Rome and famous populariser of work on sex differences in the We Are Our Brains Dick Swaab presents evidence that contradicts this (2000). Having written books on classical antiquity in the Low brain, Alzheimer’s disease and belief, claiming that everything about us – including the diseases that such specific themes as gladiators, Countries. The Mediterranean depression. Swaab has published chariot racing, Roman emperors will affect our minds – is present in our neuronal circuits long before Sea is subtitled A personal in a wide range of media, including who did not die in bed and the the authoritative Nature and we are born. Upbringing and therapy have little influence. Greek and Roman immigration history, and the personal Science. issue, he now tells his own story dimension is a particular Swaab, who has researched the brain since 1966, has a rare ability to write for the first time. The Mediterranean strength of the book. While Researcher Dick Swaab has clearly and accessibly about complex questions. We Are Our Brains is also a Sea is longlisted for the 2011 innovatively connecting written a book for the general Libris History Prize. timely book: the ageing of populations worldwide and the diseases that go together the civilizations of reader that is almost impossible to put down. The combination of along with it, such as Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s, are prompting more We have Meijer’s Mediterranean classical antiquity through personal observations and questions than ever about the brain. snorkelling and diving to thank for the common theme of the sea, experiences, scientific information Swaab describes how our brains work from their very beginnings a magnificent book, along with his Meijer displays even greater and brief case histories, each in the womb and on through old age and dementia to death and even unrivalled narrative talent and his originality in connecting the chapter enlivened by humour, astonishing erudition on the beyond. He explains how gender differences develop in the embryonic sea with his own life. ensures that the reader’s attention subject of the ancient world. will not lapse for a moment. brain, what goes on in the heads of adolescents, and criminals, how moral NRC Handelsblad De Volkskrant behaviour develops, how our memories work and how our brains influence Meijer writes for a broad our choice of partner. Meijer expertly places underwater audience and his many This is an exceptionally rich and Swaab is not writing to reassure us. In every phase of life much excavations in the context of their readers already appreciate his skilfully written book that will time, including piracy, slavery, and can go wrong. Brain diseases and neurological disorders cannot always be passionate take on history. soften the reader’s heart in the the organized theft of the products face of countless strange behav- prevented or cured, and although Swaab believes considerable scientific of art and industry. Now they can learn about the iours and emotions he will no progress has been made in the field, far more work is needed if we are to Trouw roots of that passion. He opens the book with his illegal salvaging of doubt recognize in others – and produce effective medicines and therapies.