The MANIAC

Why it’s on the list: Benjamin Labatut’s genre-bending account of John von Neumann — the polymath behind the MANIAC computer, game theory and the foundations of the digital age — told through the people in his life, tracing the rise of modern computation and the dawn of AI.

Where I heard about it

• My own saved links — an Amazon link I saved in January 2024.
• A reply to @moseskagan — in the thread under his question “What historical fiction should I read next?” (April 2025), listed as “The MANIAC — Benjamín Labatut.” The full set of replies is on What historical fiction should I… (tweet).
• @arudansk — replying to me on X (July 2025): “its a fictional bio on john von neumann told through different characters in his life (wife, friends, daughter) … especially bc you’ve read The Man from the Future and When We Cease to Understand the World (same author!)”
• Michael Mauboussin — one of his favourite books of 2024 (December 2024).
• Packy McCormick — on his “Some of my favorite books from 2024” thread on X (December 2024), archived at Some of my favorite books… (tweet).

Connections

• The Man From The Future — Bhattacharya on von Neumann, the non-fiction counterpart; @arudansk pitched this book as the novel for someone who had already read it.
• Game Theory — one of the fields von Neumann founded, and a thread in the novel.
• What historical fiction should I… (tweet) — recommendation #3: named in this crowd-sourced thread.