First published 2006
A young widow in Santa Fe receives an unexpected recruitment from J. Robert Oppenheimer in 1943. She becomes one of his first hires for a mysterious government project that requires her to lie to everyone she knows about her destination and purpose. She vanishes into the New Mexico desert along with thousands of other scientists, engineers, and their families. They all converge on Los Alamos, a desolate mesa thirty-five miles from Santa Fe that the U.S. military has transformed into a top-secret facility. The widow watches Oppenheimer transform from a brilliant but flawed academic into a leader who can inspire an entire community of virtual prisoners. Despite the isolation, secrecy, and harsh conditions of their desert prison, he motivates everyone around him to push toward an impossible goal. Through her eyes, we see how ordinary people achieved something unthinkable during the war years.
Genres: historical-fiction, 20th-century, academic, american-history
Vibes: intimate, suspenseful, thought-provoking
Tropes: chosen-one, fish-out-of-water
Setting: Los Alamos, New Mexico, Santa Fe
Period: 1943
448 pages · Paperback · Simon & Schuster