Fibonacci: A Novel
Would you change the world forever if no one would remember?
Elegant, thoughtful, and profound. For readers who enjoy vividly researched and deeply reflective historical fiction about the cost of changing the world for all time.
Leonardo Bonacci–Leo–struggles under the weight of his questions and has no idea what to choose. Should he go? Leave his childhood home of Pisa and join his father to live and work on the other side of the world, split from the rest of his family? What if it wouldn’t be safe? Should he stay? When everything at home has come to feel so empty? Yet these are his options, splintering before him. How cruel to leave it to him to decide. What if he chooses wrong?
FIBONACCI tells the groundbreaking story of how this young merchant’s son journeys across continents to find his life’s purpose—and irreversibly changes the world in the process. As he learns the new reality before him, he comes upon a discovery, learned from the very people he was told were his “enemy,” that will lay the foundation for modern math, science, technology, and business as we know it. A new language that will unite humanity through the centuries that follow: the figures 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1, and most confounding of all, a new mark his world had never known before, the 0.
Few people today know the story of Leonardo Bonacci, the namesake behind the famed Fibonacci sequence, even though none of our lives would function as they do without him. For he brought the Hindu-Arabic numeral system to the West, a system that has revolutionized the world. This novel breaks nearly one thousand years of silence to reintroduce the man who, before he was lost to time, altered everything.
Advance Praise
"The author vividly reconstructs medieval life in Pisa, Bugia, and Akka through the concrete details of sensory experience . . . [an] imaginative debut novel with biopic potential."
-Kirkus Reviews
"Tom Harrits breathes pure life into the medieval mystery that is Fibonacci. His sure hand delivers an adventure this misunderstood youth must have experienced on his way to discovering the divine secret that forever changed our Western world."
-Doug Richardson, Screenwriter and Author
"A deep dive into a mind like no other, Fibonacci whisks us into an unimaginable time before numbers as we now know them in the West came to be. I loved exploring a world I knew so little about, thanks to the novel's impeccable research. Who knew the discovery of zero could be so fascinating?"
-Janet Scott Batchler, Screenwriter and Professor of Cinematic Arts at USC
"I was blown away by Tom Harrits' novel. When I tried to describe it to friends, I first compared it to The Odyssey, then finally moved over to Siddhartha. But Leo—Leonardo when he gets older—does something neither of those heroes does: he returns with a boon that changes the world and echoes all the way to us. Stop reading this and start reading the book."
-Flint Dille, Screenwriter and Author
“Leonardo Fibonacci was a man whose mathematical achievements have completely overshadowed his life. We have a few words of autobiography in his Book of the Abacus and very little else to go on. Even his surname was only bestowed on him long after he had died. Tom Harrits has given him a story, fictional but informed by deep research and hence plausible... This book is a laudable achievement.”
-Dr. James Hannam, Author of God's Philosophers: How the Medieval World Laid the Foundations of Modern Science (shortlisted for the Royal Society Prize for Science Books)
What Readers Are Saying
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Fibonacci is a beautifully written novel that imagines the life of an incredibly influential yet forgotten figure. Because so little is known about Leonardo "Fibonacci" Bonacci, the author deserves tremendous credit for writing a believable, deeply human portrait of the man who introduced the Hindu-Arabic numeral system to the Western world.
-Amy F.
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An unconventional and mysterious window into one of the most influential minds in human history. The narrative resists easy answers, pulling you deeper into its puzzle with every page. It lingers long after the final chapter, begging to be meditated over in the reader's mind for weeks afterwards.
-Christian C.
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Fibonacci is both a ‘coming of age’ and a ‘discovery of the ages’ book . . . around one of the most influential discoveries of the almost-forgotten past. Using only a paragraph-sized testimony from Leonardo of Pisa’s relatively short self-written summary of his groundbreaking book . . . Tom Harrits takes the reader on a sweeping education of the medieval world.
-D. John C.
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Harrits's choice to tell the story of a figure who bridged conflicting worlds together through the universal language of math is a truly beautiful concept . . . a well-written, character-driven story using Fibonacci's discovery as a metaphor for connecting with those around us despite our differences.
-Rhiannon D.
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Fibonacci is a thought-provoking and thematically deep exploration of the risk inherent in cutting-edge work, the inner turmoil and self-doubt that must be managed to see it through, and the almost spiritual experience of finding the cracks in problems that lead to paradigm shifts. Fibonacci may have died and been forgotten, but he brought forth much fruit. It is high time that we recognize him properly, and Harrits' novel does this with reverence and respect.
-Kyle F.
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I very much enjoyed Fibonacci. I had never read a book quite like it. It blends history and fiction in a way that feels very grounded in reality, while bringing to life a person and time period I knew very little about. I especially enjoyed how the story explored not only Fibonacci’s contributions, but also the person behind them and the thoughts, doubts, and emotions he may have experienced throughout his journey.
-Chris M.
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In school, Fibonacci has been a fleeting term, heard once, buried deep in unused knowledge after. This book has done a phenomenal job, giving it more substance. To see the journey of Leonardo and numbers had me appreciate the foundation they have provided us nowadays much more . . . I learned much while being entertained!
-Franziska F.
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Harrits has clearly done his research here and presents the life of this remarkable young man in fascinating detail. Readers who like to learn history in a readable format will enjoy this presentation of the life and times of this remarkable young man. Harrits’ conversational style allows your imagination to picture the surroundings and trials of young Fibonacci . . . A truly great read you will enjoy from cover to cover!
-Doug L.
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Well-researched and richly imagined — the best kind of historical fiction! This lovely novel drops you right into the mind of Leonardo Bonacci, the medieval Pisan who brought the Hindu-Arabic numeral system to the West. You feel, with real immediacy, how exciting it must have been to encounter and begin to understand the revolutionary symbology of the numerals we all take for granted today . . . Highly recommended as a window into a little-known story at the heart of a discovery that fundamentally changed the world.
-Christina K.
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As someone with a bachelor’s degree in math, I honestly loved learning the history behind Fibonacci and realizing how much I didn’t know! I knew the name because of the Fibonacci sequence, but I had no idea about his role in bringing the numerical system we use today to Europe . . . I actually think this could be a really cool book for educational settings.
-Sarah C.
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A fascinating story full of interest and emotion. I was intrigued to learn how our current numbering system and its symbols came to be, something I had never really considered before reading this novel. The story is engaging and educational, and I found my curiosity growing as the story unfolded . . . This novel is an impressive first work by Tom Harrits.
-Bonnie L.
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This is a well-written literary account of the early life of Fibonacci and how he brought mathematics to the West . . . His adventures are cultural, learning to get along in this strange new country, making friends, but there was always something missing in his life, and here he finds it. Well told, lovely descriptions of a bygone place and time . . . Highly recommended historical fiction.
-Jan M.
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With a lack of certainty and a heavy heart, Leo left his family behind to join his father in Bugia. This life changing decision would place him on a path to puzzle out and embrace a new method of calculation . . . Fibonacci by Tom Harrits is a wonderful debut novel. Harrits captured the uncertainty, the angst, and the distractibility of Leo’s teenage years . . . Highly recommended.
-Fran E.
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This is a fascinating historical fiction book about Fibonacci, a mathematician about whom little is known. I have heard about the Fibonacci Sequence, so I was interested in learning more about the man. There is not a lot of factual information about him, so the author has created much from his imagination.
-Robin M.