Book Clubs

The FMS Book Clubs are small groups of scientists who get together in their leisure time to discuss the science novels they have read. There are currently FMS Book Clubs based at the Universities of Bremen, Oldenburg, and Konstanz. They comprise scientists from all generations, and from across the disciplinary spectrum, and they are regularly joined by one or two of the FMS literary scholars or sociologists. This page lists the books they have discussed and includes links to their discussion notes. Contact Susan Gaines for more information.

 

• ABGRUND by Bernhard KegelSo hatte sich Anne Detlefsen den ersten gemeinsamen Urlaub nicht vorgestellt: Statt mit ihr die Sonne von Santa Cruz zu genießen, hat Hermann Pauli sich auf die Suche nach einem seltsamen Hai begeben, der selbst den Experten der örtlichen Charles-Darwin-Forschungsstation Rätsel aufgibt. Ist es möglich, dass die Lebensgemeinschaften im Meer sich rasant verändern? Und auch Anne bekommt plötzlich zu tun. Als vor der Insel Nacht für Nacht Schiffe in Flammen aufgehen, juckt es die Leiterin der Kieler Mordkommission in den Fingern, der Sache auf den Grund zu gehen. Kommt der Brandstifter aus den Reihen der Fischer, die zur Durchsetzung ihrer Interessen bekanntlich auch vor Gewalt nicht zurückschrecken? Die Verhältnisse sind kompliziert – im Wasser wie an Land.More
• ACCIDENTALS by Susan M GainesA young Californian accompanies his mother back to her native Uruguay, where he falls in love, discovers a new species of bird—and is forced to confront both the environmental cataclysm of his future, and the dark legacy of his family’s and his nations’ past. More
• As She Climbed Across the TablePhillip Engstrand, the narrator of this novel, is an anthropologist who is in love with a physicist who falls in love with a black hole. That is the premise of this story, and goofy as it, the novel is a compelling, entertaining, and perhaps even enlightening look at the heady territory of particle physics, the nature of human obsession, and the chasm between the academic cultures of the sciences and humanities.More
• Blaze IslandA climate scientist whose career was destroyed by climate change deniers, Milan Wells has fled to a remote island with his daughter, desperate to protect her from the world's worsening weather. More
• Brazzaville BeachAn ecologist goes to Africa to do routine field research on primates and to heal the wounds of her troubled marriage to a brilliant English mathematician, but what she finds turns decades of primate research on its head and puts her career, and her life, in danger.More
• Carbon DreamsGeochemist Tina Arenas studies climates of the distant geologic past—but her data has unexpectedly modern implications. Thrust into the nascent controversy over global warming at a time when American scientists had just begun to find themselves in the media spotlight, Tina must struggle to sort out her conflicting responsibilities to science and society.More
• EuphoriaEnglish anthropologist Andrew Bankson has been alone in the field for several years, studying a tribe on the Sepik River in the Territory of New Guinea with little success. Increasingly frustrated and isolated by his research, Bankson is on the verge of suicide when he encounters the famous and controversial Nell Stone and her wry, mercurial Australian husband Fen. Bankson is enthralled by the magnetic couple whose eager attentions pull him back from the brink of despair. Nell and Fen have their own reasons for befriending Bankson. Emotionally and physically raw from studying the bloodthirsty Mumbanyo tribe, the couple is hungry for a new discovery. But when Bankson leads them to the artistic, female-dominated Tam, he ignites an intellectual and emotional firestorm between the three of them that burns out of anyone’s control. Ultimately, their groundbreaking work will make history, but not without sacrifice. More
• Everland1913: Dinners, Millet-Bass, and Napps - three men bound not by friendship, but by an intense dependence founded on survival - will be immortalised by their decision to volunteer to scout out a series of uncharted and unknown islands in the Antarctic, a big, indifferent kingdom. 2013: Brix, Jess, and Decker - three researchers with their own reasons for being far from home - set out on a field trip to the same ancient lumps of rock and snow, home to nothing but colonies of penguins and seals. Under the harsh ultraviolet light, as all colours bleach out, and the world of simple everyday pleasures recedes, they unknowingly begin to mirror the expedition of 100 years ago--PublisherMore
• The Falling SkyJeanette is a young, solitary post-doctoral researcher who has dedicated her life to studying astronomy. Struggling to compete in a prestigious university department dominated by egos and incompetents, and caught in a cycle of brief and unsatisfying affairs, she travels to a mountain-top observatory in Chile to focus on her research. There Jeanette stumbles upon evidence that will challenge the fundamentals of the universe, drawing her into conflict with her colleagues and the scientific establishment, but also casting her back to the tragic loss that defined her childhood. As the implications of her discovery gather momentum, and her relationships spiral out of control, Jeanette’s own grip on reality is threatened, finally forcing her to confront the hidden past.More
• Flight BehaviorDelia Turnbow lives in poverty with her family on her father-in-law’s farm in the Appalachian mountains. When she wanders into a forest that is suffused in a strange orange flame, she thinks it is a private miracle. A charismatic entomologist shows up from another world to study the phenomenon, and the miracle takes on very public dimensions. As religious, economic and political interests vie to exploit the so-called miracle and the residents of Feathertown establish their claims, Delia and her young son forge a friendship with the entomologist and taste the bittersweet fruit of scientific curiosity and understanding for the first time.More
• HeliumOn November 1st 1984, a day after the assassination of Indian Prime Minister Indira Gandhi, a nineteen-year-old student travels back from a class trip with his mentor and chemistry teacher, Professor Singh. As the group disembark at Delhi station a mob surrounds the professor, throws a tire over him, douses him in gasoline and sets him alight. Years later the student, Raj, is compelled to find his professor's widow, the beautiful Nelly. As the two walk through the misty mountains of Shimla, Nelly comes up against a nation in denial, Raj faces the truth about his father's role in the Sikh massacre and they both find the path leads back to the train station. More
• The Hungry Tideby Amitav Ghosh A multi-layered novel of place about the Sundarban archipelago, a wild maze of islands and waterways on the Bay of Bengal. Piyali Roy, an Indian-American marine biologist, travels across the Sundarbans in search of the once plentiful Irrawaddy dolphin. Kanai Dutt is a successful New Delhi businessman and interpreter, who has traveled to the region to retrieve his deceased uncle's journal, which recounts the history of the islands and the brutal eviction of a group of poor settlers that resulted from the government's overzealous conservation efforts. And Fokai is a local fisherman and father. In the course of their private quests and convergent stories, Ghosh explores the volatile interfaces between ecology, sociology and twentieth century politics. More
• Mendel's DwarfTold in the cynical but utterly compelling voice of a man who is waging a private war against genetic chance—obsessed with identifying the mutant gene responsible for his own disability—Mendel's Dwarf is a gripping story of scientific discovery and of the messy blend of empathy, sympathy, respect, and physiology that comprise love. The stories of a late 20th century molecular biologist riding the crest of a mature science and of the mid-nineteenth century father of that science are cleverly interwoven to examine the limits of human choice, the nature of nature—of normalcy and aberrance—and the social and political uses and abuses of scientific knowledge. Along the way, we get a refresher course in classical genetics and historical glimpses of Gregor Mendel's life and the early twentieth century eugenics movement.More
• Odds Against TomorrowA dark satire about a gifted young statistician who is hired by a New York financial consulting firm to calculate the probabilities of catastrophe scenarios--from ecological collapse and climate change to global war and terrorism--and sell his schemes to corporations who want to indemnify themselves against future disasters. As Mitchell immerses himself in his own neurotic fears and falls into step with some of 21st century capitalism's most destructive trends, an actual natural disaster overtakes Manhattan.More
• Properties of LightAt once a Gothic suspense novel and a compelling novel of ideas, Properties of Light tells the story of a young physicist who becomes enamored of an obscure equation, of the equation’s creator, and finally of the creator’s beautiful daughter. As the three strive to reconcile quantum mechanics and relativity, they become mired in a destructive triangle of science, love, and mysticism.More
• Solar Michael Beard is an overweight, middle-aged, philandering, Nobel-winning physicist who has been sitting on his Laurels for years and has lost all sense of scientific curiosity, drive, and ethics. When his personal and professional worlds collide in a freak accident, he sees a way to reinvigorate his career—and make a lot of money—by applying his Nobel-winning physics to a younger colleague's idea for artificial photosynthesis and energy production. More
• STATE OF WONDER by Ann PatchettAn employee of a pharmaceutical company dies while on a research stay in the Amazon, and his colleague is sent to find out what happened to him and the academic research project the company had funded. The project is run by a scientist who insists on research independence, but then gives up reporting on her progress or the nature of the drug she is developing in the Amazon. A beautifully written, somewhat off-the-wall mystery and adventure story, with serious issues of scientific ethics and the relationship between the private and public research sectorsMore
• We Are All Completely Beside OurselvesRosemary is now an only child, but she used to have a sister the same age as her, and an older brother. Both are now gone - vanished from her life. There's something unique about Rosemary's sister, Fern. And it was this decision, made by her parents, to give Rosemary a sister like no other, that began all of Rosemary's trouble. So now she's telling her story: full of hilarious asides and brilliantly spiky lines, it's a looping narrative that begins towards the end, and then goes back to the beginning. Twice.More
• State of FearIn Paris, a physicist dies after performing a laboratory experiment for a beautiful visitor. In the jungles of Malaysia, a mysterious buyer purchases deadly cavitation technology, built to his specifications. In Vancouver, a small research submarine is leased for use in the waters off New Guinea. And in Tokyo, an intelligence agent tries to understand what it all means. More
• Machines Like MeBritain has lost the Falklands war, Margaret Thatcher battles Tony Benn for power and Alan Turing achieves a breakthrough in artificial intelligence. Machines Like Me occurs in an alternative 1980s London. Charlie, drifting through life and dodging full-time employment, is in love with Miranda, a bright student who lives with a terrible secret. When Charlie comes into money, he buys Adam, one of the first batch of synthetic humans. With Miranda’s assistance, he co-designs Adam’s personality. This near-perfect human is beautiful, strong and clever – a love triangle soon forms. These three beings will confront a profound moral dilemma. Ian McEwan’s subversive and entertaining new novel poses fundamental questions: what makes us human? Our outward deeds or our inner lives? Could a machine understand the human heart?More
• Cold EarthSix young people meet on an archaeological dig in a remote corner of Greenland. Excavating the unsettling remains of a Norse society under attack, they also come to uncover their own demons, as it becomes apparent that a plague pandemic is sweeping across the planet and communication with the outside world is breaking down. Increasingly unsure whether their missives will ever reach their destination, each of the characters writes a letter to someone close to them, trying to make sense of their situation and expressing their fears and dwindling hope of ever getting back home...More
• SubmergenceIn a room with no windows on the eastern coast of Africa, an Englishman, James More, is held captive by jihadist fighters. Posing as a water engineer to spy on al-Qaeda activity in the area, he now faces extreme privation, mock executions and forced marches through arid Somali badlands. Thousands of miles away on the Greenland Sea, Danielle Flinders, a biomathematician, prepares for a dive to the ocean floor to determine the extent and forms of life in the deep. Both are drawn back, in their thoughts, to the Christmas of the previous year, and to a French hotel on the Atlantic coast, where a chance encounter on the beach led to an intense and enduring romance, now stretching across continents. For James, a descendant of Thomas More, his mind escapes to utopias, and fragments of his life and learning before his incarceration, now haunting him. Danny is drawn back to mythical and scientific origins and to the ocean: immense and otherworldly, a comfort and a threat.More
• Anil’s GhostAnil's Ghost transports us to Sri Lanka, a country steeped in centuries of tradition, now forced into the late twentieth century by the ravages of a bloody civil war. Enter Anil Tissera, a young woman and forensic anthropologist born in Sri Lanka but educted in the West, sent by an international human rights group to identify the victims of the murder campaigns sweeping the island. When Anil discovers that the bones found in an ancient burial site are in fact those of a much more recent victim, her search for the terrible truth hidden in her homeland begins.More
• AntarcticaLike the land it protects, the Antarctic Treaty is dissolving. The world’s last unstripped asset, Antarctica is in danger of becoming a free-for-all – oil reconnaissance teams intent on mass extraction, adventure travellers trailing waste across the tundra, and multi-national interests covertly vying for influence. But a new radical environmentalist group is determined to show humanity that Antarctica cannot be plundered like the rest of the world. Whatever it takes…More
• THE PEOPLE IN THE TREES by Hanya YanigiharaIn 1950, a young doctor called Norton Perina signs on with the anthropologist Paul Tallent for an expedition to the remote Micronesian island of Ivu'ivu in search of a rumored lost tribe. They succeed, finding not only that tribe but also a group of forest dwellers they dub "The Dreamers," who turn out to be fantastically long-lived but progressively more senile. Perina suspects the source of their longevity is a hard-to-find turtle; unable to resist the possibility of eternal life, he kills one and smuggles some meat back to the States. He scientifically proves his thesis, earning worldwide fame and the Nobel Prize, but he soon discovers that its miraculous property comes at a terrible price. As things quickly spiral out of his control, his own demons take hold, with devastating personal consequences.(Publisher)More
• WHEN THE KILLINGS DONE by TC BoylePrincipally set on the wild Channel Islands off the coast of California, T.C. Boyle’s new novel is a gripping adventure with a timely theme. Alma Boyd Takesue is a National Park Service biologist spearheading the efforts to save the islands’ native creatures from invasive species. Her antagonist, Dave LaJoy, is a local businessman who is fiercely opposed to the killing of any animals whatsoever and will go to any lengths to subvert her plans. As their confrontation plays out in a series of scenes escalating in violence, drama, and danger, When the Killing’s Done relates a richly humane tale about the dominion we attempt to exert, for better or worse, over the natural world.More
• THE ECHO MAKER by Richard PowersOn a winter night on a remote Nebraska road, twenty-seven-year-old Mark Schluter has a near-fatal car accident. His older sister, Karin, returns reluctantly to their hometown to nurse Mark back from a traumatic head injury. But when Mark emerges from a coma, he believes that this woman—who looks, acts, and sounds just like his sister—is really an imposter. When Karin contacts the famous cognitive neurologist Gerald Weber for help, he diagnoses Mark as having Capgras syndrome. The mysterious nature of the disease, combined with the strange circumstances surrounding Mark’s accident, threatens to change all of their lives beyond recognition.More
• THE WOLF BORDER by Sarah HallMore