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Nature 449, 27 (6 September 2007) | doi:10.1038/449027a; Published online 5 September 2007

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A question of truth

Katherine Körner1

BOOK REVIEWEDA Certain Ambiguity: A Mathematical Novel

by Gaurav Suri & Hartosh Singh Bal

Princeton University Press: 2007. 304 pp. £16.95, $27.95

When Euclid laid out his axioms of geometry — five statements on the properties of points, lines, circles and angles that he believed to be self-evident — he sought to demonstrate further truths by building logically on these supposedly indisputable foundations. A Certain Ambiguity uses the structure of a novel to explore the nature of the beauty inherent in such mathematical arguments, and of the truth to which they lead.