The blurbs for the book bemoan the fact that Gentzen is largely forgotten. He is certainly not completely forgotten. But, even if some people think he deserves more recognition, it is not difficult to find or sympathize with reasons for his relative lack of prominence today. He was an active supporter of the Nazis from 1933 until his death in a Soviet prison camp in Prague in 1945.

Although the choice of Gentzen as a subject for a work of fiction in 2021 is unusual, the fact that the book is rather strange in many ways should not be surprising to anyone who knows about the author. And, Dath does not disappoint in this regard. For example, in this novel which spans decades from Gentzen's lifetime all the way through 2035, one scene has Gentzen explaining Euclid's proof that there are infinitely-many primes to Lady Gaga!

I have not actually read this book myself, but based on what I have read and heard about it, the book seems to emphasize Gentzen's role as "one of the fathers of modern computer programming". This may be a stretch. And while exaggerating the modern impact of the research of individual historical mathematicians in works of mathematical fiction is not uncommon, for me I question the wisdom and motivation of doing so in this particular case.

I am grateful to Thomas Riepe for bringing this book to my attention and to Hauke Reddmann for correcting some errors in the original version of this entry.