Universe of two : a novel

Resource Information

The work Universe of two : a novel represents a distinct intellectual or artistic creation found in Thunder Bay Public Library. This resource is a combination of several types including: Work, Language Material, Books.

Label

Universe of two : a novel

Title remainder

a novel

Statement of responsibility

Stephen P. Kiernan

Title variation

Universe of 2

Creator

• Kiernan, Stephen P

Subject

• Biographical fiction
• Fisk, Charles B, 1925-1983 -- Fiction
• Guilt -- Fiction
• Historical fiction
• Husband and wife -- Fiction
• Atomic bomb -- Fiction
• Mathematicians -- Fiction
• Manhattan Project (U.S.) -- Fiction

Genre

• Fiction
• Historical fiction
• Biographical fiction

Language

eng

Summary

Graduating from Harvard at the height of World War II, brilliant mathematician Charlie Fish is assigned to the Manhattan Project. Working with some of the age's greatest scientific minds, including J. Robert Oppenheimer, Enrico Fermi, and Leo Szilard, Charlie is assigned the task of designing and building the detonator of the atomic bomb. As he performs that work Charlie suffers a crisis of conscience, which his wife, Brenda--unaware of the true nature of Charlie's top-secret task--mistakes as self-doubt. She urges him to set aside his qualms and continue. Once the bombs strike Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the feelings of culpability devastate him and Brenda. At the war's end, Charlie receives a scholarship to pursue a PhD in physics at Stanford--an opportunity he and Brenda hope will allow them a fresh start. But the past proves inescapable. All any of his new colleagues can talk about is the bomb, and what greater atomic weapons might be on the horizon. Haunted by guilt, Charlie and Brenda leave Stanford and decide to dedicate the rest of their lives to making amends for the evil he helped to birth into the world. Based on the life of the actual mathematician Charles B. Fisk

Cataloging source

CaOWLBI

Literary form

fiction

Target audience

adult