Grigori Perelman is one of the greatest mathematicians of our time, a Russian genius who solved the Poincaré Conjecture, which plagued the brightest minds for a century. At the height of his fame, he refused a million-dollar award for his work. Then he disappeared. Our writer hunts him down on the streets of St. Petersburg.
There was time for one final question. I put it to him in English, the single philosophical question that I hoped he would consider. Where does your life go from here?” I said. Perelman stepped closer to me. I saw that one of his upper teeth was dark brown, decayed. “What?” he said, his English skills apparently dormant. Perelman’s face was focused in concentration as I repeated the question, and I thought that he might answer. But when I finished speaking, his face went slack, as before. He understood what I wanted find out, the path of this unusual life. He mumbled, “I don’t know.”Stalking Sick People and regurgitating the details. It's a living, I guess.
