Grace Vandenburg is in love with numbers; she has been since she was eight years old. Every morning she brushes her hair 100 times, checks the number of bristles in her toothbrush and walks 920 paces to the local café.
There is a cool precision, an elegant beauty in the numbers that reassures and clarifies, describing not just the physical dimensions of her world but the size and shape of everything in it. Defined, clear and in its place.
But things have changed since Grace ditched her Barbie Country Camper for a set of Cuisenaire rods. The numbers took the upper hand some time ago and now they dictate what she eats (no alfalfa; it's too hard to get the number of sprouts right) where she goes, how she sleeps - and who with.
For some time the man in her life has been the mathematical prodigy Nikola Tesla, a paragon of brilliance and integrity whose appeal is only enhanced by the fact that he's been dead for many years. Now there is Seamus, and things are about to change. Not necessarily for the better.
Addition is a fabulous debut novel. Grace's voice is unmistakeable. She's damaged and screwy, but she's not a victim: she's quick-witted, flirtatious and headstrong. She's not the least bit sentimental but she may be about to lose count of the number of ways she can fall in love.
