This is a character study set against international intrigue (in the form of cryptography). The main character is an autistic mathematical genius. Much of the theme of the book is an attempt to understand genius--how it works, what can support or detract from its functioning especially in an isolated individual. As I undertstand it, high functioning autistic savants strongly focus on one interest, which in a sense Jenzhin does but I also sensed that to be successful at decrypting code, he had to have a broad understanding of literature, at least.
I am curious about the translation at least in one area, a number of cities and institutions are identified by a letter, for example N University. As I understand there is no direct translation from a Chinese character to a phonetic letter, so I wonder what the author's intention was for these institutions, cities, countries etc.