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A madman dreams of Turing machines

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This is a remarkable fiction debut from a young female physicist obsessed with two giants of twentieth century science: Kurt Godel, the greatest logician of the age, and Alan Turing, the breaker of the Enigma code.

Janna Levin tells their parallel lives in a haunting story of tortured genius, persecution and death.

Godel became delusional and paranoid to the point he starved himself to death.

Turing, despite his brilliant war work, was hounded to destruction because he was homosexual.

Both men devoted their lives to the highest truths of abstract nature, yet were unable to grapple with the everyday world.

A MADMAN DREAMS OF TURING MACHINES is a haunting, elegaic story that flows back and forth between Turing, Godel and the author.

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Product Details
Weidenfeld & Nicolson
0297645463 / 9780297645467
Hardback
813.6
28/12/2007
United Kingdom
English
General
230 p.
23 cm
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Originally published: New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2006.
Advance praise includes: 'I love the contrast of Turing's mechanized view of the world with Godel's more open-minded 'incompleteness. A wonderfully imagined book.' -- Alan Lightman (author of EINSTEIN'S DREAMS) 'A wonderfully original book. Janna Levin's compelling narrative artfully straddles the realms of fiction and non-fiction, allowing us to viscerally experience the tortured lives of two towering intellects.' -- Brian Greee (author of THE ELEGANT UNIVERSE)
Advance praise includes: 'I love the contrast of Turing's mechanized view of the world with Godel's more open-minded 'incompleteness. A wonderfully imagined book.' -- Alan Lightman (author of EINSTEIN'S DREAMS) 'A wonderfully original book. Janna Levin's compelling narrative artfully straddles the realms of fiction and non-fiction, allowing us to viscerally experience the tortured lives of two towering intellects.' -- Brian Greee (author of THE ELEGANT UNIVERSE) FA Modern & contemporary fiction (post c 1945)