Addition: A Novel - Hardcover

Jordan, Toni

3.58

4,477 ratings by Goodreads

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0061582573 ISBN 13: 9780061582578

Publisher: William Morrow, 2009

View all copies of this ISBN edition:

“Often funny, always lovable, this endearing novel of obsessive compulsive disorder and romance is outstanding.”
—Boston Globe

An absolutely delightful tale of obsessive-compulsive love, Toni Jordan’s Addition is just the ticket for fans of TV’s Monk and readers who were captivated by The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time. A wonderfully funny, supremely intelligent debut novel, Addition is “witty fun” (People), while OCD-afflicted heroine Grace and her new-found paramour Seamus are “thoroughly endearing characters, and their romance is sweet and fun” (Washington Post Book World).

"synopsis" may belong to another edition of this title.

From the Back Cover:

Everything counts . . .

Grace Lisa Vandenburg orders her world with numbers: how many bananas she buys, how many steps she takes to the caf�, where she chooses to sit, how many poppy seeds are in her daily piece of orange cake. Every morning she uses 100 strokes to brush her hair, 160 strokes to brush her teeth. She remembers the day she started to count, how she used numbers to organize her adolescence, her career, even the men she dated. But something went wrong. Grace used to be a teacher, but now she's surviving on disability checks. According to the parents of one of her former students, "she's mad."

Most people don't understand that numbers rule, not just the world in a macro way but their world, their own world. Their lives. They don't really understand that everything and everybody are connected by a mathematical formula. Counting is what defines us . . . the only thing that gives our lives meaning is the knowledge that eventually we all will die. That's what makes each minute important. Without the ability to count our days, our hours, our loved ones . . . there's no meaning. Our lives would have no meaning. Without counting, our lives are unexamined. Not valued. Not precious. This consciousness, this ability to rejoice when we gain something and grieve when we lose something—this is what separates us from other animals. Counting, adding, measuring, timing. It's what makes us human.

Grace's father is dead and her mother is a mystery to her. Her sister wants to sympathize but she really doesn't understand. Only Hilary, her favorite niece, connects with her. And Grace can only connect with Nikola Tesla, the turn-of-the-twentieth-century inventor whose portrait sits on her bedside table and who rescues her in her dreams. Then one day all the tables at her regular caf� are full, and as she hesitates in the doorway a stranger—Seamus Joseph O'Reilly (19 letters in his name, just like Grace's)—invites her to sit with him. Grace is not the least bit sentimental. But she understands that no matter how organized you are, how many systems you put in place, you can't plan for people. They are unpredictable and full of possibilities—like life itself, a series of maybes and what-ifs.

And suddenly, Grace may be about to lose count of the number of ways she can fall in love.

About the Author:

Toni Jordan has worked as a sales assistant, molecular biologist, quality control chemist, and marketing manager. She lives in Melbourne, Australia, where she works as a freelance copywriter.

"About this title" may belong to another edition of this title.