The Newton Letter

“Powerful.”—The New York Times, Notable Book of the Year

An unforgettably elegant tale of obsession and the fragile line between reason and desire.

In this compact literary gem, an historian retreats to a quiet cottage in rural Ireland to complete a biography of Isaac Newton. Why, he must unravel, did Newton suffer a mental collapse in 1693, and why did he write such a strange letter to his friend John Locke—hinting at a personal and philosophical crisis?

But as the summer days drift by, work ...