a list compiled by Alex Kasman (College of Charleston)

About this Website:

Of the many works of fiction that are published, very few involve mathematics or mathematicians. However, people who like mathematics (or are mathematicians ourselves) may especially enjoy reading those few that do. Moreover, as I argue in an article in the AMS Notices, mathematicians should be interested in these works of "mathematical fiction" even if we do not enjoy them because they both affect and reflect the non-mathematician's view of this subject.

Therefore, the list at this site is collected both for your pleasure and professional interest. If you happen to know of any other examples, please let me know. All of the comments and opinions expressed below belong to Alex Kasman unless otherwise attributed.

Notes: Since it is not especially significant to the purposes of this list, I am not differentiating between fiction which refers to actual mathematics and literature in which the mathematics itself is fictional. (In the case of "science", this distinction is sometimes made by calling the former "science in fiction" and the latter "science fiction".) Also, I am not being especially critical of what I put on the list. In cases in which it is not clear whether a work of fiction should be listed here, I would prefer to include it erroneously than to exclude it.
As it turns out, there are many, many, many books written for children that present mathematics in a fictional or semi-fictional context. As a result, I have become more picky about which examples of this particular type of "mathematical fiction" am inclined to include. New entries of this type must be unusual (e.g. unusually good, unusually interesting,...) to be included.

Amazon: For many years, this website was a member of the Amazon Associates program, which meant that we received a small "kickback" from purchases made through links here. That relationship ended in January 2024. We still use Amazon's server to retrieve book covers to show on the website when possible. And, in return, we maintain links to Amazon which presumably will earn Amazon some money from sales. But, we receive no payment for such purchases. (I presume Amazon would be okay with this arrangement which is why they allow their servers to provide those images.)

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Exciting News: The 1,600th entry was recently added to this database of mathematical fiction! Also, for those of you interested in non-fictional math books let me (shamelessly) plug the recent release of the second edition of my soliton theory textbook .

(Maintained by Alex Kasman, College of Charleston)