Embracing the Wide Sky: A Tour Across the Horizons of the Mind »

Daniel Tammet is a writer, linguist and educator. A 2007 poll of 4,000 Britons named him as one of the world's "100 living geniuses." His website company, Optimnem, has provided foreign language instruction to thousands around the globe and his last book, the New York Times bestseller Born on a Blue Day: Inside the Extraordinary Mind of an Autistic Savant, has been translated into 18 languages. He lives in Avignon, in the south of France.

Owner of "the most remarkable mind on the planet," (according to Entertainment Weekly) Daniel Tammet captivated readers and won worldwide critical acclaim with the 2007 New York Times bestselling memoir, Born On A Blue Day, and its vivid depiction of a life with autistic savant syndrome. In his fascinating new book, he writes with characteristic clarity and personal awareness as he sheds light on the mysteries of savants' incredible mental abilities, and our own.

Tammet explains that the differences between savant and non-savant minds have been exaggerated; his astonishing capacities in memory, math and language are neither due to a cerebral supercomputer nor any genetic quirk, but are rather the results of a highly rich and complex associative form of thinking and imagination. Autistic thought, he argues, is an extreme variation of a kind that we all do, from daydreaming to the use of puns and metaphors.

Embracing the Wide Sky combines meticulous scientific research with Tammet's detailed descriptions of how his mind works to demonstrate the immense potential within us all. He explains how our natural intuitions can help us to learn a foreign language, why his memories are like symphonies, and what numbers and giraffes have in common. We also discover why there is more to intelligence than IQ, how optical illusions fool our brains, and why too much information can make you dumb.

Many readers will be particularly intrigued by Tammet's original ideas concerning the genesis of genius and exceptional creativity. He illustrates his arguments with examples as diverse as the private languages of twins, the compositions of poets with autism, and the breakthroughs, and breakdowns, of some of history's greatest minds. Embracing the Wide Sky is a unique and brilliantly imaginative portrait of how we think, learn, remember and create, brimming with personal insights and anecdotes, and explanations of the most up-to-date, mind-bending discoveries from fields ranging from neuroscience to psychology and linguistics. This is a profound and provocative book that will transform our understanding and respect for every kind of mind.

Publishers Weekly

Following up his critically acclaimed memoir, Born on a Blue Sky, Tammet offers this insightful analysis of autism that sheds light on the differences between savant and nonsavant minds. Reading with intense focus, actor Daniel Gerroll becomes Tammet while still distancing himself just far enough from the material so as not to downplay Tammet's experiences. Gerroll reads with a concentrated tone that flows smoothly and effortlessly; he fully understands the material he is presenting both in literal and emotional terms, delivering Tammet's rich prose with appealing ease. A Free Press hardcover (Reviews, Oct. 27). (Jan.)

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Introduction 1

1 Wider Than the Sky 7

2 Measuring Minds: Intelligence and Talent 36

3 Seeing What Is Not There 57

4 A World of Words 87

5 The Number Instinct 125

6 The Biology of Creativity 153

7 Light to Sight 172

8 Food for Thought 191

9 Thinking by Numbers 221

10 The Future of the Mind 253

Acknowledgments 269

Bibliography 271

Index 277