For many people the idea of reading a book about a mathematical proof right after finishing a semester in a Computer Science graduate program would be an apt definition of torture. First, I am not one of those people. :-) Second, Fermat’s Enigma really isn’t a book about math so much as it is a book about determination and history. Third, it’s only a three hundred page book.

For those who may not be familiar with Fermat’s Last Theorem, it is one of the most famous problems in the history of mathematics. Many incredibly smart mathematicians worked on it and failed to solve it. Eventually, it was solved in a truly extraordinary fashion by Sir Andrew Wiles, who worked in isolation on the proof for seven years and then had to endure another year working to patch a flaw in the proof with the intense heat of the international spotlight on him.

Probably the most amazing thing about Fermat’s Last Theorem is that it was so simple to explain. The Pythagorean Theorem states that the length of the hypotenuse of a right triangle squared equals the sum of the squares of the other two sides. It’s a formula usually written as: x^2 + y^2 = z^2. Fermat’s Last Theorem states that this formula doesn’t have any non-zero whole number solutions for powers larger than two. More formally x^n + y^n = z^n where a, b, and c are whole numbers doesn’t hold for n > 2. Sounds pretty basic, and yet it took over 350 years to solve.

The book is made of two parts. First, it is part history of the problem and people who attempted to solve it. Second, it is part inspirationaly story of determination. The characters in the book are larger than life. There are some incredibly strange confluences of events that affected the people who were involved in Fermat’s Last Theorem. In particular, I thought the story of Sophie Germain was quite moving. I also found it personally amusing that the book discussed the Königsburg bridge problem since it was covered pretty early on in my Graph Theory course this semester.

Overall, I highly recommend the book to anyone who has a passing interest in mathematics or history. There’s plenty to go around. If you loved the book or the movie A Beautiful Mind, then you should not pass on this book! Of course, if you simply have something against reading, you can watch the PBS show about the solution to Fermat’s Last Theorem called The Proof, but really, the book is short and exceedingly good.