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Fermat's Last Theorem: The story of a riddle that confounded the world's greatest minds for 358 years (Paperback), 20 Nov 2011

This book covers the history of the mathematics that eventually grew into Fermat's Last Theorem and finally culminates with the theorem being proven at last. It is a fascinating book about an incredible tale of mathematics and a recurring theme of romanticism.

By romanticism I don't mean the soppy chick lit called 'Romance' that you find in the book store next to the sci-fi section (is that a rule of book stores?) but rather romanticism proper, the book is full of tales about tragedy and Faustian dichotomies. Many prominent characters of the story come to a grim end: Niels Henrik Abel dies at an early age from disease, Evariste Galois at the age of 20 was killed in a duel by a compatriot during the times of the French Revolution and the suicide of Japanese mathematician Yutaka Taniyama. The book about this tale by Simon Singh is definitely worth reading and not solely for the mathematically inclined.

The mathematics is light enough for most people to follow, much like Hawking's Brief History of Time, if you don't fully understand something just try to accept its truth then move on. This is a great book for anyone with a curious mind and / or those interested in the evolution of mathematics. If anything the book is a little bit long, there is a lot of history covered and the beginning felt slow moving as it covered a lot of simple things that anyone with a vague mathematical background will already know.