MATHEMATICAL FICTION:

a list compiled by Alex Kasman (College of Charleston)

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Pi mal Daumen (2024)
Alina Bronsky
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In this novel, a nerdy prodigy befriends an older math "noob". Since it has so far only been published in German, a language I cannot read, I do not know much about it. But, Hauke Reddmann who brought it to my attention offered the following review, in his own inimitable style:

Contributed by Hauke Reddmann

Dear Prof. Kasman,

I strongly believe this book might interest you. It's a German bestseller and has high Amazon ratings. The math is uncompromising (the author rather goes for genuineness and doesn't care when it goes above the head of the average reader) and the (German) campus scenes are spot on (as far as I can judge - I never studied *math*). The plot is the improbable friendship (?!) between a talented but annoyingly chaotic housewife and your cliched autistic math wunderkind (but then, I would be a walking cliche too - the hero had a few uncanny similarities with me, especially not grokking the concept of social lies).

The title, "Pi mal Daumen", literally "pi times thumb", meaning "approximately and not even bothering for better data", is in-universe a student zine.

Sometimes amusing, sometimes confusing, but in any case beating my very low expectations (bestsellers tend to suck :-).

Ratings: Literary Quality: 3.5 / Math and Math Life: 4.5 / Overall: 4.

Yours sincerely

Hauke

For more information about the title as a German idiom, see here.

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 Pi mal Daumen
According to my `secret formula', the following works of mathematical fiction are similar to this one:
  1. Dr. No: A Novel by Percival Everett
  2. Wish I Were Here by Melissa Wiesner
  3. The Idiot by Elif Batuman
  4. Resistance is Futile by Jenny T. Colgan
  5. Erasmus with Freckles [aka Dear Brigitte] by John Haase
  6. Odds Against Tomorrow by Nathaniel Rich
  7. Bellwether by Connie Willis
  8. Thinking of Leaving Your Husband? by Charlotte Cory
  9. An Angel of Obedience by John Giessmann
  10. Lost in the Math Museum by Colin Adams
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Categories:
GenreHumorous,
MotifProdigies, Female Mathematicians,
Topic
MediumNovels,

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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)