Rational and Nearly Rational Varieties

Arising from a summer school course taught by János Kollár, this book develops the modern theory of rational varieties at a level appropriate for graduate study. Kollár's original course has been developed, with his co-authors, into a state-of-the-art treatment of the classification of algebraic varieties. The authors have included numerous exercises with solutions, which help students reach the stage where they can begin to tackle related contemporary research problems.