They say truth is stranger than fiction. In Sara Maitland's hands it's the starting point for a remarkable collection of stories inspired by cutting-edge scientific research. From the tale of the expert on sea birds who waits on a Scottish island for her lover's return, to the Old Testament couple who breed genetically modified sheep or the granny who's also a quantum physicist, each story is based on a conversation with a scientist and reinforced with an afterword that explains the biology, genetics or theoretical physics behind each story. Maitland's "lateral thinking and flamboyant connection-making" breathes life into even the most complex theory – managing, one scientist writes, "to humanise a process I had previously considered in a detached manner" – and her use of scientific metaphors to illustrate the relationships between parents, children, siblings and lovers is refreshingly different. In The Mathematics of Magic Carpets, imagination leads a Persian scholar to new discoveries, and this collection abounds with similar revelations for writer, scientist and reader alike.
