Staff Picks – The Rosie Project by Graeme Simsion and the rise of quirky male protagonists

Forrest Gump, Sherlock Holmes and Sheldon Cooper – these quirky male protagonists - are very entertaining, original, different and great characters to read and watch.

Meet Don Tillman, a brilliant yet socially challenged professor of genetics at the University of Melbourne, who is looking for a wife in The Rosie Project. Don does not know he has Asperger’s syndrome, although his symptoms are obvious to his friends and colleagues. He approaches all things in orderly and evidence-based manner. Don leads a very structured life: every minute of every day is planned: looking for the ingredients for Thursday’s supper? – No problem, they are on the Thursday shelf. Despite the fact that Don is pleasant, good-looking, and has “above average social status” he does not have a girlfriend. So he designs the Wife Project to find his perfect partner: a sixteen-page, detailed questionnaire to filter out the drinkers, the smokers, the late arrivers.

So along comes Rosie Jarman… Rosie smokes, drinks and is constantly late and disorganized – definitely NOT Wife Project candidate. She needs Don as a DNA expert to help on her own quest in identifying her biological father. Together, this improbable pair partner in search for Rosie’s father. And the adventure begins.

The Rosie Project made me smile and think. If you like touching, funny and charming stories try The Rosie Project.

The Rosie Project won the Victorian Premier's Unpublished Manuscript award in 2013.

If you want to read more books about unlikely heroes who you can't help but love you can try these titles:

The Good Luck of Right Now by Matthew Quick
Shine Shine Shine by Lidya Netzer
Someone Else’s Love Story by Joshilyn Jackson

Dear Readers, who are your favorite unlikely heroes?