I genuinely thought I was buying a fiction book when I bought it. Turns out I was dead wrong. This is one of the best non-fiction book I read this year. It started with a simple theorem: alike Pythagorean Theorem, but immensely difficult to proof. This book tells the story of how Andrew Wiles, a mathematician from Princeton who proved Fermat's Last Theorem. Structurally, the book explains the development of mathematics from the Ancient Greece to today. It started with Pythagorean theorem, and then to Diophantus, whose book, Arithmetica becomes a guide for the amateur mathematician, Fermat. This book also delves into the live of Fermat, and different mathematicians whose whole lives tried to prove Fermat's Theorem. In addition to explaining the development of mathematics historically, Singh is also able to create a mathematical narrative that seems "understandable" for layperson like me. This is a very good read and I'd recommend it to everyone!

Genius

Good. Lucid in many places ("any logic which relies on a conjecture is conjecture"). Does well in using plain language to communicate some of the exciting complexity and dismaying complication of higher maths (but not as well as Kanigel on Ramanujan).

Brilliant journey through the history of Mathematics culminating with one of the most remarkable intellectual achievements of the 20th century. Anyone who thinks math isn’t exciting should give this a read.