Journal of Statistical Physics, Vol. 112, Nos. 3/4, August 2003. p. 883-884.
This book is a collection of contributions by D. R. Nelson presented at conferences, workshops and summer schools on the role of defects and topological excitations in several problems of condensed matter physics such as elasticity, superfluidity, superconductivity, glass transition and polymer physics. This books exposes the common grounds of several, apparently disconnected, problems of actual relevance in condensed matter theory. This is an ambitious goal that the book accomplishes quite successfully, sometimes at the price of quite elaborated math.