From the author of ‘The Music of the Primes’ and ‘Finding Moonshine’ comes a short, lively book about five mathematical problems that refuse to be solved – and how many everyday problems can be solved with mathematics.

Every time we download a song from iTunes, travel the Atlantic, or talk on our mobile phone, we rely on great mathematical inventions. Mathematics may fail to provide answers to some of its own problems, but it can provide answers to problems that do not seem to belong to it – how prime numbers are the key to Real Madrid’s success, the secrets of the Internet, and the survival of insects in North America's forests.

In ‘The Number Mysteries’, Marcus du Sautoy explains how to approach a Jackson Pollock painting, how to understand if the universe has a hole in the middle of it, how to create the roundest soccer ball. He shows us how to see shapes in four dimensions – and how mathematics can make you better players at gambling. He talks about the pursuit of predicting the future – from the flight of asteroids to the upcoming storm, from bending a ball like Beckham to predicting population growth.

It is a book you can dive into, a book that challenges and perplexes – and a book that gives us answers.

Pages: 320, Dimensions: 12.9x12.9cm