MATHEMATICAL FICTION:

a list compiled by Alex Kasman (College of Charleston)

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Sweet Tooth (2012)
Ian McEwan
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Contributed by Tom Louis Lindstrøm

A female mathematics student at the University of Cambridge gets recruited for intelligence work by the MI5. She tries to explain the Monty Hall Problem to her boyfriend (a budding author), but he fails to understand it although her explanation is quite lucid.

For most of the book, the fact that the protagonist studied mathematics is essentially irrelevant, aside from perhaps giving an overall impression that she is capable of thinking logically. At one point, she is told that she should be proud of having a maths degree from Cambridge (even though she rated only third class). The part about the Monty Hall Problem, though not especially significant to the overall plot, is many pages long and somewhat interesting. She is trying to help her boyfriend to incorporate the problem into a story called "Probable Adultery" that he is writing about a man who knows that his wife and her lover are behind one of three doors in a hotel.

Thanks to Tom Louis Lindstrøm for letting me know about this interesting and well-written (though only barely mathematical) novel.

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 Sweet Tooth
According to my `secret formula', the following works of mathematical fiction are similar to this one:
  1. The Deluge by Stephen Markley
  2. The Steradian Trail by M.N. Krish
  3. The Cipher by John C. Ford
  4. Zero Sum Game by S.L. Huang
  5. The Rabbit Factor [Jäniskerroin] by Antti Tuomainen
  6. The Boy Who Escaped Paradise by J.M. Lee (author) / Chi-Young Kim (translator)
  7. Seven Wonders by Ben Mezrich
  8. Invisible by James Patterson / David Ellis
  9. She is Not Invisible by Marcus Sedgwick
  10. A Girl Named Digit by Annabel Monaghan
Ratings for Sweet Tooth:
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.
Mathematical Content:
1/5 (1 votes)
..
Literary Quality:
5/5 (1 votes)
.

Categories:
GenreAdventure/Espionage,
MotifFemale Mathematicians, Romance,
TopicProbability/Statistics,
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)