Publishers Weekly
★ 04/21/2025
Taylor shines in her intelligent debut about two Harvard students whose lives are upended when they discover a potential cure for aging. Sophomore Zoe is attracted to fellow organic chemistry major Jack, with whom she works on an extracurricular project in a retired professor’s private lab. There, with Zoe’s help, Jack stumbles upon a way to reverse the effects of aging. In between their exciting breakthroughs, their love lives become increasingly tangled. After Zoe loses her virginity to Jack, she falls for one of his roommates, and Jack invites a potential flame, whose father is a billionaire venture capitalist, to partner with the pair to produce an antiaging drug. Taylor thrills with her crackling and science-heavy depiction of the hothouse startup and its founders’ dizzying ascent into the spotlight. The character work is just as impressive, as Zoe struggles to be accepted as a woman in a male-dominated field (“the part of the scientist was written male”) and Jack strives to overcome his difficult upbringing, having been being raised by his great-grandparents after facing abuse from his single mother’s boyfriends. After Zoe makes a shocking discovery that threatens to bring down their company, the plot ramps up, and readers will race through the pages to see what happens next. This is a winner. Agent: Katie Greenstreet, Paper Literary. (June)
From the Publisher
A Zibby Owens "Summer Read" * A Jordy's Book Club "Most Anticipated Book of 2025" * An Indie Next pick
“Notes on Infinity is mesmeric, and beautiful, and it stole my breath and my heart. It’s a grand story of science and startups, and a simple story of first love and belonging. A cautionary look at our need to push our limitations, and a perfect portrait of friendship, family, and that fine line between exhilaration and agony. I really couldn’t have loved it more.”
—Chris Whitaker, author of All the Colors of the Dark and We Begin at the End
"I adored this book. It follows two Harvard students developing an antidote to aging. I have an absolute fascination in start-ups from colleagues’ stories of Google in its early days. This delivered in that respect, but in so many others, too: love, and partnership, and being the only woman in the room, growing up and deciding who you wish to be. It is very clever, but it has a huge, messy heart, which is exactly what I love in a book."
—Abigail Dean, author of Girl A and Day One
“Dive into the world of Harvard's brightest minds with Notes on Infinity. This unputdownable campus novel offers an inside look at the intense, high-stakes world of academia, where ambition, brilliance, and pressure collide. Austin Taylor gives a sharp, thoughtful exploration of the pursuit of dreams, of greatness, and the cost of success in an environment that demands nothing less than perfection. For lovers of campus dramas and anyone who has ever wondered what really happens behind Ivy League walls.”
—Weike Wang, PEN/Hemingway Award-winning author of Chemistry, Joan is Okay, and Rental House
“The best of books: one I could not put down while also, simultaneously, wishing it was truly infinite. A perfectly realized novel with crystalline characters and a palpable sense of time, historically and of the characters' lives. Austin Taylor's ability to tell a story is superb and Notes on Infinity is a reading experience to savor.”
—Lottie Hazell, author of Piglet
“As ambitious, intelligent, and dazzling as its characters, Notes on Infinity had me in its thrall from start to finish. A transporting smart kids campus novel and love story that examines contemporary startup culture from a tough female perspective—I will be recommending this one widely. I devoured it.”
—Emma Knight, author of The Life Cycle of the Common Octopus
“With Notes on Infinity, a tangled tale of biotech gone awry, Taylor shifts the boundaries of the campus novel, portraying a newly pressurized student culture… [and] explores arguably the most human boundary of all—mortality.”
—Publishers Weekly, Writers to Watch feature
"Taylor thrills with her crackling and science-heavy depiction of the hothouse startup and its founders’ dizzying ascent into the spotlight.... readers will race through the pages to see what happens next. This is a winner.”
—Publishers Weekly, Starred Review
"Notes on Infinity is a blazing meditation on the pressure cooker of academia, the price of fame in the digital age, and how far is too far to go for a chance at corporeal—or scientific—immortality. "
—Shelf Awareness
"A convincing portrayal of the hothouse collegiate environment in the sciences by an author with exciting potential."
—Kirkus
"With a trajectory that echoes that of Elizabeth Holmes’ Theranos, Taylor's debut provides an insider's glimpse into the high-stakes Ivy League climate and the potentially devastating personal consequences for those caught up in ambition beyond their abilities."
—Booklist
