A Certain Ambiguity: A Mathematical Novel

While taking a class on infinity at Stanford in the late 1980s, Ravi Kapoor discovers that he is confronting the same mathematical and philosophical dilemmas that his mathematician grandfather had faced many decades earlier—and that had landed him in jail. Charged under an obscure blasphemy law in a small New Jersey town in 1919, Vijay Sahni was challenged by a sceptical judge to defend his belief that the certainty of mathematics can be extended to all human knowledge—including religion. Both Vijay and Ravi discover the power—and the fallibility—of what has long been considered the pinnacle of human certainty, Euclidean geometry.

As grandfather and grandson struggle with the question of whether there can ever be absolute certainty in mathematics or life, they are forced to reconsider their fundamental beliefs and choices. Their stories hinge on their explorations of parallel developments in the study of geometry and infinity—and the mathematics throughout is as rigorous and fascinating as the narrative and characters are compelling and complex. Moving and enlightening, A Certain Ambiguity is a story about what it means to face the extent—and the limits—of human knowledge.

Praise for the Book

‘A Certain Ambiguity is an amazing narrative that glows with a vivid sense of the beauty and wonder of mathematics . . . Mixing fiction with non-fiction, [it] is a veritable history of mathematics disguised as a novel.’—Martin Gardner


‘This is a truly captivating thriller that will take you on a whirlwind tour to infinity—and beyond. But be warned: once you start reading, you won’t be able to put it aside until finished!’—Eli Maor, author of e: the Story of a Number and The Pythagorean Theorem: A 4,000-Year History

‘By deftly blending the young man’s story with mathematical ideas and historical developments . . . the authors succeed brilliantly in taking the reader on a tour of some of the major highlights in the philosophy of mathematics . . . the book also examines, through the minds of its characters, the natures of faith . . . and truth.’—Keith Devlin, author of The Math Gene