A review by lizaroo71
One Hundred Twenty-One Days by Michèle Audin

4.0

I called Deep Vellum in Dallas and said, "Tell me what to read." This was one of the recommendations. Incredible. This is a translated work and one that I imagine would have been difficult to work with given the various formats in which the story is told.

This follows various mathematicians in France during both world wars. We begin the story with one young man in Africa that ventures to Europe to study. This man, M, becomes the apex of the stories that then unfold.

We get journal entries, descriptions of the contents of an envelope and even one chapter that is told with numbers and their significance. It is a brilliant way to read through the lives of people so affected by the work these men completed.

I would have appreciated some kind of diagram with a list of the mathematicians (I found I had to return to previous chapters to keep the narrative straight), but that is just a simple wish. This is an interesting way to tell a story and one that I really enjoyed. I'm always in awe of authors that can put something so complex together and make it seem so simple.

Thanks to Deep Vellum for publishing and recommending.