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GOOD stories need rich characters that we care about, not mathematical theorems, however fascinating. So a work of fiction subtitled A mathematical novel makes you fear that it may only expose the tremendous difficulty of blending science and logic with the emotion and dramatic tension required of good literature. Fortunately, in this case that fear is misplaced, because A Certain Ambiguity succeeds both as a compelling novel and as an intellectual tour through some startling mathematical ideas.

Just before his death, Indian mathematician Vijay Sanhi entices his grandson, Ravi, into the world of numbers via one of its mysteries. Punch any three digits into your calculator, he tells Ravi. Then punch in the same three again. No matter which digits you choose, he claims, the resulting six-digit number will be exactly divisible by 13, that result divisible by 11, and the last result by 7. You will always end up with the same three-digit number you started out with. Amazed to find this is true, Ravi soon works out why (a clue: 13 脳 11 脳 7 = 1001), and falls in love with mathematics.

We follow Ravi鈥檚 encounter at university with the elegance and beauty of Euclid鈥檚 geometry and his concept of mathematical proof, wherein one discovers truths using pure logic, starting from a set of self-evident axioms. He moves on to Georg Cantor鈥檚 momentous demonstration of different categories of infinity: there are, in fact, infinitely many kinds of infinity.

But as Ravi plunges deeper into the mathematics of infinity, he also follows a parallel journey, uncovering secrets in the life of his grandfather. He learns from old newspapers and court proceedings that Vijay had visited the US on the invitation of some mathematicians. While there, he was arrested by the Christian citizens of a small town in New Jersey after publicly denying the truth of religion.

Charged under New Jersey鈥檚 archaic blasphemy laws, Vijay has to defend himself before judge John Taylor, also a Christian, yet one convinced of the necessity for fairness before the law. Judge, inspired by religious conviction, and prisoner, inspired by the logical beauty and certainty of mathematics, lock in an epic battle, wrestling with the nature of moral or religious knowledge, and whether meaning in human life can be founded on anything like the solid ground of logic.

A Certain Ambiguity is a brilliant and unusual novel. I cared deeply about Vijay and learned again that the search for certainty is perhaps humanity鈥檚 most poignant and enduring challenge, both in mathematics and in our individual lives.