I read The MANIAC in the fall, and as time goes on, it’s proving to be one of the standouts from the pile of books I read in 2023. I think about it all the time. This is Labatut’s first novel, which is credited for setting the template for the newer book.

Like The MANIAC, this is presented as a ‘nonfiction novel’, which is a bit of a funky idea. The Acknowledgements section gives some indication of what was fictionalized. For me it’s helpful to think of a book like this like the HBO series Chernobyl: some characters are fictionalized amalgamations of several historical figures or some events are streamlined to make the story less complex. Internal and external dialogue is invented, but the core story is authentic.

And what a story! Labatut’s hook is that boundary-pushing mathematics is a field that can drive people to lose touch with the world they live in. His real-life examples are a group of thinkers that, as they become closer to the discoveries that will define their careers and cement their place in history, become detached, distant and alienating to those around them, and the work eventually causes them to flee the field, overcome by madness, or nearly so.

This was every bit the book that The MANIAC is. It surely benefitted from knowing what I was getting into – rather than being baffled for the first bit as I was with The MANIAC, I hit the ground running on page one.

The characters are well-developed, and many are familiar, especially if you’ve read The MANIAC. Oppenheimer, Einstein, Turing, and Heisenberg are all key figures in this story. The core characters are also familiar, if not quite household names. Their research is certainly familiar – quantum physics, fertilizer, poison gas.

If every historical recounting was written in this style, with the context that Labatut adds to connect historical dots, and his (and translator Adrian Nathan West’s) skill for clear, direct language and just the right amount of detail on the science, the world would be a much richer place.

This is an early contender for best read of 2024. If you liked The MANIAC, read this. If you haven’t read The MANIAC, get on it.