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

This book is a wonderful recount of how Fermat's last theorem, one of the world's most (in)famous math problems that eluded mathematicians for more than 350 years, was finally solved by the British mathematician Andrew Wiles in the 1990s.

Written in easy to understand prose, Singh not only describes the amazing intellectual breakthroughs that were required to solve this problem, but in the process also recounts the tale of such mathematicians as Sophie Germain, the tragic boy-genius Evariste Galois and the Japanese duo of Taniyama and Yutaka that helped set the stage for Wiles historic and brilliant solution.

4 out of 5 stars