MATHEMATICAL FICTION:

a list compiled by Alex Kasman (College of Charleston)

Home All New Browse Search About

...
Oh, Brother (2007)
Stanley Hart
...

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. Songs My Mother Never Taught Me by Selçuk Altun
  3. Echoes from the Past by Edward Michel-Bird
  4. The Crimson Cipher by Susan Page Davis
  5. Hickory Dickory Shock! The Tale of Techies by Sundip Gorai
  6. Electric by Chad Taylor
  7. The Last Equation of Isaac Severy by Nova Jacobs
  8. Invisible by James Patterson / David Ellis
  9. The Da Vinci Code by Dan Brown
  10. Not a Penny More, Not a Penny Less by Jeffrey Archer
Ratings for Oh, Brother:
RatingsHave you seen/read this work of mathematical fiction? Then click here to enter your own votes on its mathematical content and literary quality or send me comments to post on this Webpage.
(unrated)

PLEASE HELP US OUT BY ENTERING YOUR OWN RATINGS FOR THIS WORK.

Categories:
GenreMystery, Adventure/Espionage,
MotifProving Theorems,
TopicAlgebra/Arithmetic/Number Theory,
Medium

Home All New Browse Search About

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)