The Number Devil

How can maths be turned from nightmare into dream? The magic is achieved in The Number Devil by Hans Magnus Enzensberger, one of Germany’s most celebrated contemporary literary figures. Published in 1997 as his first work for children and adolescents, the book became an overnight international bestseller, and has been translated and republished in numerous editions ever since. Twelve-year-old Robert hates mathematics and is even afraid of it. He is not helped in this by his boring teacher, who is incapable of making it seem either useful or appealing. But one night, in the realm of dreams, Roberto meets the Number Devil: a fiery little red gentleman who takes him on a twelve-night journey through the mesmerising land of numbers. Step by step, the boy is drawn ever deeper into the magical world of powers, square roots, prime numbers, and theorems. Robert is inducted into the ranks of the Number Apprentices, earning a star-adorned medallion, which he finds around his neck when he awakens in the real world. What then happens at school over the following days goes without saying. With its amusing language and its playful use of sounds and meanings, as well as a narrative structure rooted in the thrilling whirl of initiation, mathematics becomes a fascinating fairy-tale world for the reader. Already a classic for Generation X, The Number Devil has now reached Generation Alpha, who can experience maths as being within everyone’s reach and not as a privilege reserved for the few. And today, more than ever, this is sorely needed.

Reading age: 10+

Il mago dei numeri. Un libro da leggere prima di addormentarsi, dedicato a chi ha paura della matematica
Hans Magnus Enzensberger, illustrations by Rotraut Susanne Berner
Einaudi, 2014