The Sand-Reckoner

by Gillian Bradshaw

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Archimedes is recalled from the intellectual freedom of Alexandria to Syracuse when his father becomes ill and war threatens the city. Reluctantly accepting work as a royal engineer, he turns mathematical ideas into catapults and other machines while navigating family obligations, court patronage and an unexpected attachment to Delia.

As Syracuse is drawn into the Second Punic War, Archimedes’s inventions make him famous and increasingly valuable to rulers who see knowledge as a weapon. Political betrayal and the Roman siege place his household and city in danger, forcing him to confront the human consequences of the practical devices that interrupt his devotion to pure mathematics.