Sex and Mathematics

Berlin-based Finnish mathematician, Erika leads a controlled, ordered life trying to purge herself of superfluous emotions and needs. Yet when the worst imaginable happens to her, her world comes crashing down and she escapes back to her homeland. Meanwhile, in Helsinki, a young man named Tuovi is looking online for love in a desperate attempt to soothe his fears when an oil tanker hits the rocks on the Baltic Sea a devastating impact, as the two lost souls find salvation in each other in unexpected ways.

Sex and Mathematics is a frighteningly intelligent and visceral novel about people in crisis, environmental disasters, about the confusing and erratic life and the beauty and logic of mathematics. And about the agonies and ecstasies of sex.

Iida Rauma

Iida Rauma is an author of two prize-winning novels. Her writing tackles notions of power, sexuality, violence, and the relationship between humans and nature – at times in essay format or narrative non-fiction. She holds a Masters in Political Science and lives in Turku, Finland.

She has received several literary awards for her work, for example the Torch-bearer Prize and Helmet Literature Prize in 2015 and Kalevi Jäntti Prize in 2016. In addition, she was nominated for the EU Literature Prize 2016, Toisinkoinen Prize in 2015, and Helsingin Sanomat Literature Prize in 2011.