a list compiled by Alex Kasman (College of Charleston)
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Highly Rated! |
Billy Terwilliger (aka Twillig) is not your typical 14 year old boy.
True, he is beginning to get interested in sex and thinks that the
word "fart" is entertaining, but he is also a number theorist and the
recipient of the first Nobel prize in mathematics!
This novel follows Twillig as he gets accustomed to a secretive think-tank at which he has been hired. We learn that the goal of this research center (and the impressive scientists there from many disciplines) is to decode a brief message (a series of dots and dashes, like Morse code) that has been received from a distant source: Ratner's Star. Not only does Twillig's area of interest (numbers he calls "zorgs") prove useful in this investigation, they also lead to a discovery in mathematical physics (all of which offends Twillig's view of math as beautiful and useless). This passage is taken from the last chapter:
Don DeLillo is a well known, and critically acclaimed author in literary circles. But, Ratner's Star, his attempt at mathematical fiction, did not please all of his fans. (See the reviews at Amazon, for instance.)
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Buy this work of mathematical fiction and read reviews at amazon.com. ![]() |
(Note: This is just one work of mathematical fiction from the list. To see the entire list or to see more works of mathematical fiction, return to the Homepage.) |
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Exciting News: The total number of works of mathematical fiction listed in this database recently reached a milestone. The 1,500th entry is The Man of Forty Crowns by Voltaire. Thanks to Vijay Fafat for writing the summary of that work (and so many others). I am also grateful to everyone who has contributed to this website. Heck, I'm grateful to everyone who visited the site. Thank you!
(Maintained by Alex Kasman, College of Charleston)