The Tenth Muse

A novel that not only engaged my heart and soul but informs, educates and gave me two quotes to help me through life.

“Be kind.
Everyone you meet is fighting a great battle.”

“Let everything happen to you,
beauty and terror.
Just keep going.
No feeling is final.”

This novel is going into my “best ever” list and very few make it, still less than 20, and I’ve been reading for 60 years! I do not give out story lines, that would be unkind, but only wish to let a prospective reader know that this is a gift of a novel, treasure it. It will inform the reader on the long reaching effects of WW2, the unending battle for women to be taken seriously and given credit for their intellect and is also a beautifully written and thoroughly researched.

A fascinatingly erudite and thought provoking historical novel by Catherine Chung written in the style of a personal memoir, with the extraordinary Katherine reflecting with on the challenges of her past life with the self awareness that perhaps there was much that she could have approached more wisely with the benefit of hindsight. She grew up in the post-WW2 years in small town New Umbria in Michigan, the child of an interracial relationship, with her American father, a man silent on his wartime experience, and Chinese mother. It was her father who triggered her curiosity in science, and her mother opened her eyes to the underlying principles within nature, prior to abandoning her when she was young. Katherine's aptitude for mathematics, the key to life's mysteries, was apparent even as a child, in this story of ambition, family drama, tragedy, lies, secrets, race, gender, love, and culture, where past history continues to haunt the future.

Feeling like an outsider even as a child, where her abilities were unacknowledged and treated with contempt, these are experiences that are to repeated in her future. It is surprising that Katherine wins a university scholarship, as she steps into an academic world run by men for men. Katherine harbours a drive to solve the mystery behind the Riemann Hypothesis, the greatest mathematical problem of the time. All that she believes about her personal fractured family history collapses as she now reevaluates her sense of identity and events that occurred during WW2 and secrets buried there. Despite the obstacles that face her, like the tenth muse of myth and legend, the strong, independent Katherine is determined to forge her own path in life, irrespective of the price it costs and toll it takes on her.

Chung is herself a mathematician, and she outlines the history of mathematics and science with skill and simplicity for the none mathematician in this wonderfully complex novel. The characterisation of Katherine is complicated and well developed, both compulsive and satisfying. This is an inspiring read, beautifully written and moving, original in its interweaving of mathematics, history, identity and gender. Absolutely loved it, and recommend it highly. Many thanks to Little, Brown for an ARC.

My left brain aches, my right brain aches, my heart aches. The Tenth Muse is an extraordinary story that takes the logic of mathematics, personal ambition and the highly emotional turmoil of family secrets and love, and overlays them to create an outstanding novel. A story that paints the most challenging decisions we would ever have to make – a choice between the things we love most.

Katherine has a gifted mathematical mind and from her childhood through to University she has always been disparaged and mistreated as she sought to compete in a male-dominated environment. Determined to never suppress her mind, her resolute drive to open doors into new mathematical revelations placed her personal ambition above all of life’s other fulfilments.

Kat grew up with a Chinese mother and American father but early in her life, her mother left unable to live the lie that she was Katherine’s mother and her parents were married. Later also finding out that her father wasn’t her natural father, set in motion an anxious exploration into solving the mystery who her parents were. This led Kat to Germany and secrets that stemmed back to the Second World War, a Jewish family line, an escape to safety, two mathematicians as parents and a notebook that she had instinctively held precious her whole life which was full of equations and mathematical notation.

What I found fascinating in the story was how well delivered the emotional and mental struggle in confronting unattainable resolution was portrayed. Kat’s life is often defined in choices between her very individual pursuit of ground-breaking achievements in solving mathematical theorems, such as the Riemann hypothesis, and the human relationship costs.

“All my life I’ve been told to let go as gracefully as possible. What’s worse, after all, than a hungry woman, greedy for all that isn’t meant to be hers? Still, I resist. In the end, we relinquish everything: I think I’ll hold on, while I can.”

Kat’s integrity is admirable and what she really wants from those close to her is to be respected in her ability to achieve her goals, without favours. She also wanted to be recognised as a fashionable woman without camouflaging her femininity.

As someone with a mathematical background and lover of literature, this double pleasure truly hit the mark with me. While the language is the utility of literature, mathematics is the language in which God has written the universe – Galileo Galilei. This is a novel that examines the determination of achieving personal recognition in mathematical accomplishment and the determination to uncover the truth of her background and family history. Kat’s character and principles are wonderfully observed and challenged, knowing that the right choice will likely be the most difficult path but she will have to live with the consequences.

This is an inspiring story for those fighting prejudices and those seeking encouragement to pursue their own dreams as a priority. The Tenth Muse is an enthralling story that I would highly recommend. I’d like to thank Little Brown Book Group and NetGalley for providing me with an ARC version in return for an honest review.

The Tenth Muse initially attracted me because of the allusion to Greek mythology in its title. However, I was hooked from the very first page. Katherine's story was compelling and fascinating, and surprisingly, despite not being a maths person, I found that one of the most gripping things about the novel was Katherine's fascination with maths. The book just goes to show that it is not easy to separate subjects even ones that seem so wildly different. Chung creates a moving narrative that speaks about intelligence, identity, independence, and the emotional scars that remain after some of the most horrendous events of the 20th century. Chung's narrative delves into issues of gender, race, history, and future and weaves them into a story that I know will stay with me for a long time after the final page has been turned. All in all, the book was a wonderful and thought- provoking read and I wpuld reccommend it to all.

*A big thank-you to catherine Chung, Little, Brown UK and NetGalley for arc in exchange for my honest review.*
I am into humanities, but this book proved to be both fascinating and engaging for me despite the field which I do not enter eagerly: mathematics. It tells an intriguing story of a woman who, step by step, learns about her true identity and becomes a renowned mathematician against all odds.
The novel talks about some theories in a most interesting way, easy to follow by a reader with average knowledge, which I appreciated, and at the same time it is a tale of learning who Katherine really is, presented in the way that made me read till wee hours.

I don't usually think of maths as being tender, and as a child found the one single correct answer of basic maths problems to be constraining and not creative. I've never really thought I was missing out on anything by thinking this way, but this beautiful novel might have changed my mind.

A flawless voice that I never once considered as anything other than authentic, at times heartwarming, and at other times heartbreaking, I found this novel to be a perfectly balanced equation. I loved the driven narrator, and the way it wasn't just maths but stories that played such an important role in her life. An enjoyable read that felt both rewarding and generous.

A gorgeous book a book that draws you in engages your mind and soul.Literary fiction at its best have been singing its praise to all who truly love fiction. #netgalley#lillebrownuk

The Tenth Muse tells the fictional story,of Katherine who is a maths genius. It is written in an autobiographical form. The story begins in her early childhood and relates her progress into high level academia, despite multiple challenges.
This book is nothing like anything else I have read before, and it would not have been a book I would have ordinarily have chosen. That said I'm immensely grateful to Netgalley and Little Brown Book Group UK for a free ebook in return for an unbiased review. I loved TheTenth Muse for many reasons...it's beautifully written, intelligent and has vast scope. Catherine Chung gives the reader incredible insights into the world of mathematics, but also into love, loss and family dynamics. She touches on many other contentious and sensitive issues, e.g. historical denigration of women , homophobia and amazing war crimes. . I didn't want to finish this book,, it was just too good! There were many occasionals when I had to stop reading for a little while and just let the words sink in slowly. I will definitely. Look out for more of this authors work. It was wonderful.

I loved it. It was a gentle compelling story. Takes the reader into the world of mathematics but whilst the maths is an integral part of the book but it is not necessary to be a mathematician to understand it. The book has a number of parts, the way women were treated in academia, the strength of Katherine, the main character, the maths itself and the very intriguing story of the background of the main character. I loved the ending too. What more can I say..

This was a fascinating book with lots of content that made it very rich. Lots of social commentary, history, characters, etc.
I really enjoyed the writing. It dragged a tiny bit in the middle, but beautiful writing made up for it.

I highly recommend it.

Thanks a lot to NetGalley and the publisher for this copy in exchange for an honest review.

Thanks to NetGalley and The Publisher for this eARC in exchange for an honest review.

4.5 stars rounded up.

I was asked to consider reading this by the publishers via NetGalley. I didn't really read the blurb properly but picked up it was about maths and I like maths and numbers in general so I thought maybe but didn't give it much priority. It also started popping up in other places so I decided to see what all the fuss was about.

I'm so glad I did.

This is a phenomenal book. I couldn't put it down. Beautifully written.

It's about the life of an eventually extremely successful Chinese-American Female Mathematician on a quest to find her true identity but deals with her struggles to be taken seriously in a male dominated field and what she has to give up in order to reach the top. It it has added layers and depth by exploring the history and pioneers of Mathematician and how they were treated because of their gender. And the effects of World War Two and the legacies left behind. My description doesn't do it justice.

As a scientist myself, what was most interesting for me was although this book was set in the past many of these issues are still rife. The author really brought the essence of this to the forefront.

So thought provoking and relatable in so many ways. This was a pleasure to read.

“What terrible things we do in the name of love.”
Katherine grows up a very special girl. Her father introduces her to natural sciences and she is fascinated by numbers from her childhood. When her mother leaves them unexpectedly, the bond between father and daughter becomes even closer. Stubborn as she is, she wants to study mathematics knowing that the time hasn’t yet come for women to enter university and compete with men in the 1950s. But which other way could she possibly choose? She is obsessed with the Riemann hypothesis and determined to solved the greatest riddle of her time. Her stubbornness does not prevent her from being hurt, from learning the hard way that only because you are talented and eager, you do not necessarily get what you want.

Even though Catherine Chung’s novel is set in the 1950s, there is so much also today intelligent young women experience when it comes to the intellectual ivory tower. Men are still considered made in god’s image and thus by nature more capable, cleverer and more talented that any woman could ever be. Well, that’s their interpretation. I found it easy to bond with the striving protagonist and, unfortunately, only could commiserate too easily with what she feels when being deceived and her intellect ignored over and over again.

One should not shy away from the book because of the mathematics, the logical problems they are occupied with are well explained and remain quite on the surface so that the average reader can easily follow their thoughts. Apart from that, what I appreciated most is how Katherine sticks to her ideals and goals, even though this at times means that she hurts herself and gives up a lot for her professional integrity – without being rewarded for it. The second line of the plot about Katherine’s family is also quite intriguing since it is well embedded in the German history and the dangers even intellectuals ran when they had the wrong religion.

A beautifully written book about a strong woman that captivated me immediately.

Relatable story about a woman trying to break with convention whilst also trying to piece together her past and make sense of what happened to her family.

The author is a delightful story teller and the perspective is interesting enough to to keep you reading.

I very much enjoyed this book.

Sometimes our own family is the puzzle we spend our lives trying to solve. Katherine is an unusual child who early on shows signs of genius. Mathematics is her passion but for a girl to be successful in this field she needs to learn how to tell the difference between friends and foes, rivals and lovers, and love and dependence.

The book is fascinating and compelling and I loved the theme of the Tenth Muse who was the one who wasn't willing to give her skills away for a man to reap the rewards. The Tenth Muse decided to live out her own dream and to accept the challenge that this entails - sometimes letting go of security and acceptance. To forge her own path.

I learnt a lot from this book

Highly recommended

The Tenth Muse by Catherine Chung

Math is the engine that drives this book, but everything that surrounds this engine is the body of the vehicle. The engine is not the whole. Katherine, the protagonist, has a story to tell and no words are wasted. It takes the entire book to get to the end of her story; a masterpiece of a tale.

Katherine lives for puzzling over and solving mathematical theories. It is in her blood. Along the way, slowly, she discovers truths about her life that are more complex than the math theories she wishes to prove. Getting this information in bits and pieces is the best part. Chung just has a way with dangling that carrot, and nicely, gently leaving us wanting more.

People cheer and disappoint Katherine. She rises and she falls in academia and in personal relationships. Largely, she shares the perils of being a woman in a man’s world. All the parts weave together to make an incredible life’s journey. It is a story for all readers who delight in a perfectly delivered tale. If you read only one more book this year, make it The Tenth Muse.