White Holes

By: Carlo Rovelli

Narrated by: Harry Lloyd

A mesmerizing trip to the strange world of white holes from the bestselling author of Seven Brief Lessons on Physics and The Order of Time

Let us journey, with beloved physicist Carlo Rovelli, into the heart of a black hole. We slip beyond its horizon and tumble down this crack in the universe. As we plunge, we see geometry fold. Time and space pull and stretch. And finally, at the black hole’s core, space and time dissolve, and a white hole is born.

Rovelli has dedicated his career to uniting the time-warping ideas of general relativity and the perplexing uncertainties of quantum mechanics. In White Holes, he reveals the mind of a scientist at work. He traces the ongoing adventure of his own cutting-edge research, investigating whether all black holes could eventually turn into white holes, equally compact objects in which the arrow of time is reversed.

Rovelli writes just as compellingly about the work of a scientist as he does the marvels of the universe. He shares the fear, uncertainty, and frequent disappointment of exploring hypotheses and unknown worlds, and the delight of chasing new ideas to unexpected conclusions. Guiding us beyond the horizon, he invites us to experience the fever and the disquiet of science—and the strange and startling life of a white hole.


* This audiobook edition includes a downloadable PDF of portraits, maps, and figures to accompany the audiobook.

Critic reviews

“It doesn't take a degree in astrophysics or expertise on Albert Einstein to appreciate White Holes. . . . a book that says as much about imagination and exploration as it does about physics. . . . Rovelli helps readers grasp how important imagination is to seeing the universe in new ways, for both artists and scientists.” —Associated Press

“If you want to remember why you once fell in love with the idea of the cosmos, or want to fall in love with that idea for the first time, then this book is for you. For my part, I found myself following Rovelli into a weird and wonderful new universe and I was very content to be there.” —Observer (UK)

“It is always worth reading Rovelli. He writes like he believes you are as learned and clever as he is. Yet he also writes with such care for your ignorance that it feels every page is urging and coaxing you—a non-physicist—to see what he can see.” —TThe Times (UK)

"White Holes edifies, excites, and even transforms me. Rovelli summons us to novel forms of knowledge while also breathing life into questions that affect all sentient beings, such as: how do we proceed when our guides no longer suffice? I’m grateful for the warm invitation to the journey." —Maggie Nelson

“Meet the new Stephen Hawking.” —The Sunday Times (UK)

“No one writes about the cosmos like theoretical physicist Carlo Rovelli.” —The Washington Post

“Carlo Rovelli is a genius and an amazing communicator. . . . What I love about this writing is that it always comes back to people—people interacting with other people, who are interacting with their world. This is the place where science comes to life.” —Neil Gaiman

“The physicist known for making complex science intelligible.” —Financial Times

“One of the warmest, most elegant and most lucid interpreters to the laity of the dazzling enigmas of his discipline.” —John Banville, The Wall Street Journal

This guy…

My third book by Carlo, all within the span of a month… he does not fail to astonish. I’m by no means a physicist, or an expert, but I am so fascinated by the stories of the field. No other author has managed to capture the sheer wonder of physics like Carlo. I’m totally blown away. I’m writing this while walking to my local bookstore now to buy another.

Thought provoking

My second book by Rovelli. Short and simple to understand the framework he is trying to explain. Well delivered by Lloyd.

thought provoking

This is a thoughtful, well articulated meditation on physics, cosmology, and consciousness. Really like Rovelli's views of the cosmos.

Exactly what I’ve come to expect from Rovelli.

I love to listen to Rovelli’s tales: the way he communicates his passion for his vocation. In the first chapters of White Holes he reflects on the process that led from his study of Black Holes to the image of a stone falling to the bottom of one and bouncing back up to form a white one reversing the arrow of Time in the process.

Don’t get me wrong. I could not follow his discussion of the whys and wherefores of his theorizing and its relation to Einstein’s General Relativity even a little bit. But his excitement of his formulating that theory was so contagious that it made me want to keep reading until I might be able to grasp just a little. He ties the motion of that stone to Dante’s search for Beatrice in the Paradiso enchanting this Reader even more.

When he finally proposes that his theory might lead us to a greater understanding of the Nature of Time and how its reversal might enable our Memories and how White Holes might constitute the mysterious Dark Matter he’s left my Mind spinning!

All in all it’s a wonderful ride. Four Stars. ****

Quintessential Rovelli

This book is like a Rovelli greatest hits: it has relevant references to literature, mixes science and poetry in a positive way (white holes as dust motes or dragonflies, come on!), calls out profound history of science facts (how Aristarchus characterized the distance and relative sizes of the sun and moon two millennia ago!), and of course Rovelli returns us to his wheelhouse - entropy and time. There are ideas here you have never heard before. There are ideas you have heard many times, but not in this way. The audiobook includes a PDF with quite a bit of footnotes, which I appreciate. That is what I love most about Rovelli.
We may dwell technically on his points (there is no Black Hole Information paradox!), and he has many footnotes and papers and books out there for this. Or we can just let his words and ideas wash over us, like a wave of time detonating from a disequilibrium.