The Housekeeper and the Professor by Yoko Ogawa (Paperback)

The Housekeeper and the Professor is a short, tender novel by Japanese author Yoko Ogawa, translated into English by Stephen Snyder. A brilliant mathematician who has kept only eighty minutes of short-term memory since a head injury is looked after by a young housekeeper, and every morning they are introduced all over again. It suits readers who enjoy quiet, character-driven fiction.

• The Professor speaks through numbers, setting riddles built from details like her shoe size or birthday
• Her ten-year-old son, whom the Professor nicknames Root, becomes part of their unlikely household
• Shows how affection can grow even when memory cannot hold on to it
• Makes mathematical ideas feel warm and approachable, no maths background needed

Details

• Author: Yoko Ogawa
• Translator: Stephen Snyder
• Publisher: Vintage
• Published: 2010
• Format: Paperback, 180 pages
• Language: English
• ISBN: 9780099521341