'The book is a clear exposition of the theory of sets of finite perimeter, that introduces this topic in a very elegant and original way, and shows some deep and important results and applications … Although most of the results contained in this book are classical, some of them appear in this volume for the first time in book form, and even the more classical topics which one may find in several other books are presented here with a strong touch of originality which makes this book pretty unique … I strongly recommend this excellent book to every researcher or graduate student in the field of calculus of variations and geometric measure theory.' Alessio Figalli, Canadian Mathematical Society Notes 'The first aim of the book is to provide an introduction for beginners to the theory of sets of finite perimeter, presenting results concerning the existence, symmetry, regularity and structure of singularities in some variational problems involving length and area … The secondary aim … is to provide a multi-leveled introduction to the study of other variational problems … an interested reader is able to enter with relative ease several parts of geometric measure theory and to apply some tools from this theory in the study of other problems from mathematics … This is a well-written book by a specialist in the field … It provides generous guidance to the reader [and] is recommended … not only to beginners who can find an up-to-date source in the field but also to specialists … It is an invitation to understand and to approach some deep and difficult problems from mathematics and physics.' Vasile Oproiu, Zentralblatt MATH