Story of a proton

Just after the Bing Bang, Primo the proton finds himself next to Priscilla and it’s love at first sight. «I couldn’t use the usual cliché of “she was different from the others”, it’s difficult for a subatomic particle to be so different from its peers» he tells us in the pages of this book, «but I immediately understood that it was the right one. That there was no point in looking for anything else.” But the universe expands quickly and they soon get lost. Thus begins a long journey for Primo through the key events of cosmic history: he will become part of an atom, then of a star that explodes as a supernova, to finally arrive on an inhabited planet where he will be part of an ocean, then of carnivorous plants, annelids, narwhals, cacti, salamanders, mosquitoes, up to humans.
But even across millennia and sidereal distances, Primo will never forget Priscilla: he will look for her everywhere, he will write passionate love letters to her, always cultivating the hope of finding her again and he will tell her with amazement, wonder and sometimes fear what he witnesses. Will he be able to reunite with her in the end? With a style that alternates lyricism and irony, Filippo Bonaventura recounts the salient moments in the history of the universe, from the Big Bang to Homo Sapiens (fourteen billion years distilled into just 272 pages!), in a book as entertaining as it is impeccable in its scientific references .