Puzzle Ninja: Pit Your Wits Against The Japanese Puzzle Masters

Description

The Japanese logic puzzle is one of the most addictive products known to man. Alex Bellos travelled to Tokyo to meet the puzzle masters behind these habit-forming brainteasers and brought back over 200 puzzles that will flex, stretch, and blow your mind. Can you beat the puzzle masters to become a puzzle ninja? Puzzles are so enjoyable. They get your brain sparking and the competitive spirit flowing. Solving them is one of life's simple pleasures. The puzzle masters of Japan create the world's most satisfying puzzles, so Alex Bellos travelled to Tokyo to meet them. These enigmatologists include the godfather of Sudoku, the winner of the World Puzzle Championships, an inspiring teacher who uses games to enliven his students' maths lessons, and the puzzle poet whose name has become a Sudoku solving technique. They use noms de guerre - Edamame, Lenin, Teatime, Sesame Egg - and each has a distinctive style. What unites them are their megawatt brains and the beauty of their hand-crafted puzzles, which will challenge and sharpen your mind. Bellos has collected over 200 of their most ingenious puzzles, rated easy to excruciating, and introduces 20 new types of addictive problems including Shakashaka and Marupeke. Arm yourself with pencil, eraser and laser-like focus. Let's get puzzling ...

Alex Bellos is an author and broadcaster whose specialises in mathematics and Brazil. When he was the Guardian's correspondent in South America he wrote Futebol: The Brazilian Way of Life, a look at contemporary Brazil seen through football. It was a huge critical success, and led to his being asked to ghostwrite Pele: The Autobiography. He is also the author of the popular math books Alex's Adventures in Numberland and Alex Through the Looking-Glass, which were both bestsellers in the UK. The former has had more than 20 translations and won several awards.