Graeme Simsion

Graeme Simsion is an Australian author and information systems researcher whose The Rosie Project became an international bestseller through its portrait of a professor with traits consistent with autism spectrum disorder who embarks on a scientific search for a wife.

Graeme Simsion was an information systems researcher and database designer who turned to fiction in his fifties, writing The Rosie Project (2013) after completing it as a screenplay that had attracted some interest before he converted it into a novel. The book was selected by Bill Gates as one of his favorites, which contributed substantially to its international success.

The Rosie Project follows Don Tillman, a genetics professor at the University of Melbourne who, having failed to form romantic connections through conventional means, applies his scientific methodology to finding a wife. He creates the Wife Project — a detailed questionnaire designed to eliminate unsuitable candidates — and promptly meets Rosie Jarman, who fails every criterion. The novel’s comedy depends on Don’s voice: precise, logical, and entirely without the social meta-awareness that most people use to navigate interpersonal situations. He is widely understood to have traits consistent with autism spectrum disorder, though this is never stated in the novel.

The Rosie Project, The Rosie Effect, and The Rosie Result form a trilogy following Don and Rosie through marriage and parenthood. The books are genuinely funny in a way that literary fiction rarely attempts — the comedy comes from character rather than situation — and they have been appreciated as affectionate rather than condescending portrayals of neuroatypicality. The Rosie Project in particular has been widely recommended as an accessible and enjoyable book for readers who think they don’t enjoy fiction.