With all that going for it, it’s a shame that some passages of this book are like wading through particle soup. Quarks and leptons, positrons and hadrons, gluons and muons, Tonelli chucks them all in, sometimes with a carefree disregard for the general reader’s understanding. There are parts that, frankly, I didn’t get. Perhaps you’ll do better ... All is forgiven, though, when Tonelli leaps — often in one paragraph — from minutiae to cosmic grandeur. He explains superbly how minuscule variations in the density of that first fleck of a universe are now written across the immensity of space, to be read by us in background radiation and in the patterns of the galaxies themselves. The heavy elements of which we are made were forged in those stars, and he takes an infectious joy in the implications ... He’s honest about science’s shortcomings too ... that’s the key difference between the Bible’s Genesis and science’s version. One is finished. The other is a work in progress, and is all the more exciting for that. Whether or not you buy every detail of the Tonelli version of events, his flawed but hugely impressive book gives a grand vision of the marvels we’ve discovered, and the immensity of what we still don’t understand. Maybe he should have called it Revelations instead.

Mr. Tonelli writes lyrically ... The style, tone and difficulty-level of the book are what one might expect in a lecture aimed at a general audience. All that’s missing are the PowerPoint slides. There are interesting digressions into other cultural areas—Greek myth, Renaissance art and so on—sometimes to illustrate important technical ideas such as symmetry, or merely as pleasant asides. Word origins are another humanistic sweetener ... What researchers hope for is the unexpected. What funders prefer is to know the outcome in advance. It’s a paradox that top-level scientists like Mr. Tonelli negotiate with aplomb.

Tonelli’s descriptions of what amounts to his workplace are disappointingly fleeting in these pages; even the lay reader will be able to glean that the discovery of the Higgs boson is a major scientific event worthy of a long, detailed chronicle of its own. This isn’t that book. Instead, Tonelli maps those picoseconds of the universe’s birth onto, as the title suggests, the creation account in the Book of Genesis. The rationale behind this is impenetrable and maddening; there is no connection whatsoever between the three-thousand-year-old mythology of primitive tribesmen and the science of cosmology and particle physics, and any attempt to invoke one—especially by a scientist, for the love of Mike—is only counterproductively encouraging to the science-denying religious fundamentalists who already have way, way too much encouragement in the 21st century. The organizing conceit aside, however, Tonelli’s book is such a lively introduction to the current theorizing about the first 10-to-the-negative-30th seconds goings-on in the universe that you might actually find yourself understanding some of it. Talk about something out of nothing.

Einstein meets Ovid in Tonelli’s compelling account of how the universe was born and how it has since evolved. Grounded in theoretical science but sustained by artistic fervor, this account not only illuminates the precepts of modern cosmology for nonspecialists, but also endows those precepts with rare imaginative power. Though Tonelli incorporates technical terms (leptons, neutrinos, muons) in his narrative, interested nonspecialists will understand—even delight in—a story that begins in the mysterious triggering of the big bang and culminates in the emergence of a universe filled with galaxies where stellar fire warms planets (like ours) capable of sustaining intelligent life. Readers will thrill at the opportunity to accompany a world-class physicist to the frontiers of cosmological science, there to contemplate the unfolding of the universe and to gauge the dazzling new technologies enabling scientists to scrutinize that unfolding. Others have told this story, of course, but no one has so enriched the science of this cosmic drama with such meaningful forays into mythology, scripture, music, and history. Thus, while teaching readers about the scientific discoveries of modern cosmology, Tonelli also compellingly explores the primal, prescientific human emotions—wonder, anxiety, hope—that have animated the researchers who have made those discoveries. A science book that will matter deeply to nonscientists.

From his descriptions of the Big Bang to human creativity and storytelling, the author’s writing is lush and inviting, offering countless points of entry even for those readers unfamiliar with fundamental concepts of physics ... a concise yet action-packed narrative ... With clarity and just the right amount of technical language, Tonelli tackles complex subjects such as supersymmetry, dark matter, and the births of stars and planets. He also masterfully conveys the scientific and epistemic profundity of 'how we look at the world, and therefore our place within it.' Entangled within his pursuit of scientific truth, the author’s overarching outlook is one of awe ... An exhilarating exploration of the cosmos that is both poetic and cutting-edge.

... elegant, accessible ... Tonelli’s storytelling successfully weaves curiosity, Greek mythology, and scientific discovery ... Already a bestseller in Italy, Tonelli’s lyrical story of creation is sure to ignite the imaginations of American readers.