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The best-selling comic novel "The Rosie Project" tells of a romance between a socially awkward genetics professor and a free-spirited young woman. The story behind the book, though, is as unexpected as the novel itself.


 
Don Tillman, the 39-year-old hero of "The Rosie Project" wants to live longer. Scientific studies show married men live longer, so he decides it's time to find a life partner. Socially inept, Tillman decides the most efficient approach to what he calls "The Wife Project" is to create a 16 page, double-sided questionnaire on what he wants in a mate. He plans to present it to prospective partners to fill out to see if they are suitable.


 
Tillman was born in the nerd world of information technology, a world Australian author Graeme Simsion navigated for 30 years.


 
"I had a lot of contact with geeks," said Simsion, who'll 

 in St. Paul. "A lot of contact with, largely, men who were socially awkward, but who made lives, who had made contributions professionally, who had relationships, who brought up families, who were good people."


 
Tillman, who may or may not be on the autism spectrum, is the "classic unreliable narrator," Simsion said. "But his unreliability is around a forensic dissection of what we do. Why do we wear jackets to restaurants? Why do we do this and this and this?"


 
At a speed dating event at a local hotel, Tillman sits beside a surprised young woman called Frances and turns on the analytics. Simsion writes:


 
Not surprisingly, given his exacting standards, no one makes Don Tillman's cut.


 
That includes Rosie. Their meeting sends them off on a series of misadventures trying to find her father in what Don calls "The Father Project." You can guess what "The Rosie Project" becomes.


 
Simsion set aside IT work at age 50 to become a writer. So was it easy to write "The Rosie Project?"


 
"Dead easy — took me four weeks," he deadpanned.
 


He admits that's because he started off thinking he was writing a dramatic screenplay. He worked on that for five years before re-envisioning the story as a comic novel. But having done all that character development the book came together very quickly.


 
"I went from February 2012: blank page. June 2012: I had the publishing contract in Australia for no great amount of money. And then in September of that year the foreign rights started to sell. And that was when it was apparent that it was inevitably going to be a best seller because the publishers had so much skin in it," he laughed. 


"The Rosie Project" ended up being published in 40 countries, not bad for a debut novel. Simsion is dealing with that change in his life. He is also having a lot of discussions about Asperger's syndrome.


 
Simsion says while his hero exhibits Asperger's-like tendencies, he was careful not to write about them in a negative way. Don Tillman is a good guy trying to do the right thing, and help his friends he says. The challenge he faces doesn't lie within him, but outside in society. The Asperger's community, he added, has generally welcomed the book.


 
"You are wired a little differently," he said. "You are a minority and your problem is not how you are, it's how the world is in terms of how it treats you."

 "The Rosie Project," co-sponsored by the Autism Society of Minnesota.

 Common Good Books, 38 S, Snelling Ave., St. Paul

Arts and Culture

Euan Kerr

Author

The best-selling comic novel "The Rosie Project" by Graeme Simsion tells of a romance between a socially awkward genetics professor and a free-spirited young woman. The story behind the book, though, is as unexpected as the novel itself.

Love, analytically: 'Rosie Project' author probes the geek heart

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