MATHEMATICAL FICTION:

a list compiled by Alex Kasman (College of Charleston)

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Oh, Brother (2007)
Stanley Hart
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A serious mystery/adventure novella from an author better known as a script writer for the old Carol Burnett show. A professor solicits the help of his brother, a retired police detective, in order to find a friend who has disappeared mysteriously. The friend had claimed to have a proof of Fermat's Last Theorem. Further investigation ties the plot to the terrorist attacks of 9/11/2001 and Israeli spies.

Unfortunately, the author does not seem to know enough about Fermat's Last Theorem or its history to make this tale interesting from a mathematical point of view. (He merely says Fermat "had come up with a solution to a heretofore intractable conundrum of mathematics", which isn't even quite accurate.)

This story together with another by the same author was published in 2007 under the title Two Novellas. Thanks to Vijay Fafat for bringing it to my attention.

More information about this work can be found at www.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.)

Works Similar to Oh, Brother
According to my `secret formula', the following works of mathematical fiction are similar to this one:
  1. Fermat's Room (La Habitacion de Fermat) by Luis Piedrahita / Rodrigo Sopeña
  2. The Crimson Cipher by Susan Page Davis
  3. The Last Theorem by Arthur C. Clarke / Frederik Pohl
  4. Echoes from the Past by Edward Michel-Bird
  5. Songs My Mother Never Taught Me by Selçuk Altun
  6. Hickory Dickory Shock! The Tale of Techies by Sundip Gorai
  7. Invisible by James Patterson / David Ellis
  8. The Last Equation of Isaac Severy by Nova Jacobs
  9. Qui perd gagne! by Laurent Bénégui (Director)
  10. Not a Penny More, Not a Penny Less by Jeffrey Archer
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Categories:
GenreMystery, Adventure/Espionage,
MotifProving Theorems,
TopicAlgebra/Arithmetic/Number Theory,
Medium

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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)