Fermat's Enigma: The Epic Quest to Solve the World's Greatest Mathematical Problem

Despite the increased interest in Fermat’s Last Theorem since Andrew Wiles announced his proof in 1993, there have been few popular books on the subject. In the months immediately following his announcement, one book capitalized on the moment: The World’s Most Famous Math Problem, by newspaper columnist Marilyn vos Savant. That book suffered from many problems, the worst being a woefully wrong-headed attempt to discredit Wiles’s proof. The only other popular book to appear in the U.S. was fortunately much more serious. Fermat’s Last Theorem: Unlocking the Secret of an Ancient Mathematical Problem by Amir D. Aczel, an associate professor of statistics at Bentley College, was published in 1996 by Four Walls Eight Windows. The book received favorable reviews in the popular press (for example, see the New York Times review, available at http://www. nytimes.com/books/home/) and was for a short time distributed by the AMS. However, complaints about some mathematical inaccuracies in the book led the Society to stop selling it. (A review of this book will appear in a future issue of the Notices.)