From the critically acclaimed author of The Baker’s Secret and The Curiosity comes a novel of conscience, love and redemption Graduating from Harvard at the height of World War II, brilliant mathematician Charlie Fish is assigned to the Manhattan Project. Working with some of the age’s greatest scientific minds, including J. Robert Oppenheimer, Enrico Fermi and Leo Szilard, Charlie is assigned … Fermi and Leo Szilard, Charlie is assigned the task of designing and building the detonator of the atomic bomb.
As he performs the work Charlie suffers a crisis of conscience, which his wife, Brenda—unaware of the true nature of Charlie’s top-secret task—mistakes for self-doubt. She urges him to set aside his qualms and continue. But once the bombs strike Hiroshima and Nagasaki and Brenda realizes the truth, the feelings of culpability devastate them both.
At the war’s end, Charlie receives a scholarship to pursue a Ph.D. in physics at Stanford—an opportunity he and Brenda hope will allow them a fresh start. But the past proves inescapable. Haunted by guilt, Charlie and Brenda know that they must do something to make amends for the evil they helped to bring into the world.
Based on the real life of Charles B. Fisk, Universe of Two combines riveting historical drama with a poignant love story. Stephen Kiernan has conjured a remarkable account of two people struggling to heal their consciences and find peace in a world forever changed.
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This was a joy to read and at times also sad. The author did a wonderful job fictionalizing Charles Fish’s work on the making of the atomic bomb. The importance and destruction of it which ultimately caused Charles to be guilt ridden and remorseful. With love and support from his wife, Brenda, he heads into academia and eventually Charles finds solace. Thank you to the Book Club Girl Early Read Program and Harper Collins Publisher for this beautiful ARC. This is my honest review.
Universe of Two by Stephen P. Kiernan is an amazing historical fiction that is placed mainly during the latter years of WWII in the US and beings to light a lot of the backstory in regards to the Manhattan Project: the creation, testing, and eventual use of the atomic bomb. This book, to me, is really two stories interweaving into one gorgeous novel.
We are introduced to Brenda and Charlie and get to dive into their respective lives and viewpoints in alternating chapters. Through Charlie, we are able to learn so much more about the inter-workings of the US government, military, and some of the science/engineering that was involved in creating the monumental, life-changing, world-altering, and controversial atomic bomb. Being able to see, albeit simplified, how the structure was created and implemented was beyond fascinating. My chemistry major definitely helped give me that baseline knowledge that really drew me in when those concepts were discussed. I was enthralled with the process from beginning to end.
The second story is the relationship itself between Charlie and Brenda (18 and 19 respectively at the beginning of the book). Getting to learn each character’s strengths and weaknesses (Brenda a talented and passionate organist that also was slightly self-absorbed) and Charlie (mathematician, and and genius but also a tortured soul in regards to the role that he plays) made me that much more invested into the book and how it progressed. Their meeting, their trials, their triumphs, struggles, and finally finding their places in life was excellent reading.
There were also several underlying themes to this book:
1. Music. The inclusion of a shared and beloved pastime: music. Seeing how much those notes on a page and the ability to bring them to life was a unifier with Brenda, Charlie, Reverend and Mrs Morris, and I found it fascinating. How those notes evoked feelings, memories, and ideas with out saying a word spoke volumes.
2. Relationships. The relationship between Charlie and Brenda, Brenda and her mother, Brenda’s parents, each characters’ relationship with themselves and their transitions and changes as they grow and evolve.
3. Morals. The moral dilemmas the characters faced in times of war. The inner turmoil Charlie felt as he wrestled with the gravity of the part he played in helping create the atomic bomb. Who are we to say looking back on what is right and what is wrong? Nothing in this novel is black and white. Not one person is innately innocent or evil. The decisions made creating rippling effects eternally. That is pretty deep and tough subject matter for anyone to deal with, let alone two young adults still trying to figure out who they are and what their life purpose may be.
This book was fascinating, gripping, emotional, and finally positive and satisfying in the end. I learned quite a bit, and isn’t that what a perfect historical fiction is really all about?
Excellent and enthusiastically recommend.
5/5 stars
I received an advanced copy of this amazing book through a Goodreads giveaway. It is amazing!
I really enjoyed this book. The characters are complete, well-rounded and multi-dimensional. Charlie Fish is sweet, smart and humble, while the girl he loves, Brenda Dubie has such a high opinion of herself that I kept waiting for her head to explode! The story is rich and timely, even today, given the threats we face around the world and in our own country! The relationship between the main characters develops slowly, and I really felt as if I was a close friend watch these two people become their own “universe of two”.
Mrs. Dubie, Brenda’s mother, is definitely one of my favorite characters in this book. She completely fits the times, yet there was something so very modern in her portrayal and the way Mr. Kiernan created her. The men that Charlie works with, either in the mathematical lab or on The Hill, are so real and human that I felt as if I knew them, and suffered with them in their frustrations, triumphs and fears.
I just finished this beautiful book. I needed to do my review and put my thoughts together right away. First I won arc copy of this book in a good reads giveaway in return for my honest thoughts and review. I have never read a Stephen P. Kieran book before. I plan on to read more and all future books from now on. I couldn’t put book down.The writing is amazing I haven’t a bad thing to say about this book. I was so involved with these characters and how the author bought this story to life. At times all different emotions towards these characters. I will miss these characters. This will be a book that I will remember and one I could and will reread. I highly recommend this book. Go preorder this book. It comes out May 5, 2020
About Book
This book is set in 1945 during WW2 Brenda is young 19 year old girl who lives with her mother. Her father and brother were shipped out to serve. Brenda is working and meets Charlie who is like no other man. Kind and soft spoken and Brenda isn’t used to it. This book takes us one their journey.
I have read all of Stephen Kiernan’s books so I knew I was going to enjoy Universe of Two before I turned the first page. What I didn’t realize was how deeply the book would affect me and that I’d still be thinking about it a week after I finished it. This is a beautifully written book about love and guilt and redemption.
The year is 1943 and Charlie meets Brenda when he comes into the music store that her mother owns and she works at. At first, she didn’t think much of him. She was more interested in all of the soldiers on leave who wanted to dance and pay attention to her. Charlie wasn’t very impressive when he first asked Brenda to play a song for him on the organ but as he kept coming in to the store, she found herself looking forward to his visits. Charlie was a Harvard graduate, a brilliant mathematician and was working for the government on the Manhattan Project. He had no idea exactly what he was working on and only knew his small part of the entire project with the rest being kept in secret. When he is sent to Los Alamos, he and Brenda plan to write to each other but that was a poor substitute for being together so she joins him in New Mexico. Charlie knew that he was working on a project for the government but had no idea that they were creating the first atomic bomb. He only knew that he was creating a detonator. Once he realized what the project was all about, he wanted to quit when he understood the possible devastation of this bomb. Once the bombs strike Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the feelings of culpability devastate him and Brenda. When the war is over, the government agrees to pay for him to go to Stanford to get his doctorate but he finds everyone excited about the possibilities of atomic energy and realizes that he doesn’t want to be part of it. He quit school and he and Brenda look for a career that will bring joy into the world and help to ease the guilt they feel over his part in building the atomic bomb.
The writing in this book is exquisite and the characters are multi-dimensional – the reader sees the good and the bad in the two main characters. My prediction is that this will be a very popular spring 2020 novel. I already know that it will be in my top 10 books for the year.
Thanks to the publisher for a copy of this book to read and review. All opinions are my own.
Stephen Kiernan is a new author to me but I am so very glad I got to read his book.The story is based on an actual man Charles Brenton Fisk who served on the detonator team in Los Alamos, New Mexico. It is based on fact interwoven with fiction and makes a fantastic book. It is one that you don’t want to put down, but you really do want to pick it up! Thanks Stephen for writing such a great book!
This story sure pulls out a lot of feels and is based at least in part on history. I received this for free and I voluntarily chose to review this. I’ve given this a 5* rating. Not sure this should be read by the under 18 readers. This whole story is about WW II and the bombing of Japan. This author captures the high emotions of both sides of this event. I must say, I, myself, am torn on this issue. My mother’s first fiancé was one of the one’s killed at Pearl Harbor. A young man goes for a job, and is lead to do mathematics’ work. It goes from there. A good book to do some soul searching for yourself.
A beautiful and carefully constructed tale of survivor’s guilt.
The woman narrator in Universe of Two is the perfect person to tell a difficult story. Brenda is both young and old, the story being told in retrospect by the older woman and the plot in which she participates occurring primarily in the War World II years, beginning when she is nineteen. That story begins as a romance with an eighteen year old mathematician, Charlie, working on a secret project for the war effort in Chicago. He is actually a second protagonist in the novel. Brenda is outgoing, vivacious and strong-minded. Charlie is a nerd and innocent, so much so it isn’t until halfway through the novel, after he is sent to New Mexico, that it occurs to him that he is working on a component of a weapon that will kill hundreds of thousands of people at once. Brenda follows Charlie to New Mexico, where she witnesses the positive attitude that she has fostered in him go sour. The two each then endure a crisis of conscience.
The plot of Universe of Two is predictable. There is not much mystery here. Who doesn’t know the story of the Manhattan Project and Los Alamos? The characters drive the story, which is a beautiful and carefully constructed tale of survivor’s guilt. Brenda’s story is presented in the first person point of view, told years after the event, but carefully presented to keep the reader engaged with her being, at first, a self-centered brat, and then a woman who falls in love and discovers responsibility. Charlie is presented in a third person point of view. It is a bit unconventional to mix points of view like this, but it’s a brilliant device employed by the author to illustrate the differences between Charlie and Brenda. Simply said, she is comfortable talking about herself and taking risks, not to mention making observations about him. He is awkward when it comes to interactions with his self and unsure of why she would love him. As the subject is related to math, think of their relationship in the terms of a formula, the combination of fixed numbers and variables. And consider whether Brenda is, in fact, the third person narrator telling Charlie’s story.
And, finally, there is music. Those who love music in novels shouldn’t miss this one. The icing on the cake is the construction of organs, a lifetime of doing so, which Charlie and Brenda pursue to right the wrong of Charlie’s atomic detonator. At the end, Brenda is not a brat when she sits at the last organ Charlie designed and thinks, “Don’t fear your mistakes as long as you learn humility from them.” She is speaking for both of them.
Mark Zvonkovic is the author of A Lion in the Grass
http://www.markzvonkovic.com
Rarely does historical fiction get everything so right as Universe of Two: compelling characters, faithful detail, a story packed with unexpected twists, and a sure, authentic voice that never wavers. In this novel of the dawn of the atomic age and its profound consequences, Stephen Kiernan leads us along a journey of conscience as complex and infinite as the science itself.
THE UNIVERSE OF TWO by Stephen P. Kiernan was completely unexpected for me. This historical novel takes place mainly during WW II and is told in alternating viewpoints. We have Charlie, told from the third-person point of view, who stole my heart immediately. Brenda, told in the first-person point of view, took a lot longer to grow on me, as she was so self-centered, I wanted to strangle her at some points.
The novel is based on the life of the man who created the detonator for the atomic bomb and Kiernan does an amazingly thorough job of describing not only the process, but delving into the emotions and conflict Charlie has as he realizes what exactly he is involved in. His relationship with Brenda was the positive in his life and he relied on her and her advice, despite not being able to really tell her what he was doing. Both the characters were young and living in a time that forced them to grow up quickly.
This was an extremely well-written novel and the amount of research Kiernan did is amazing. I knew so little about that subject, so this was a revelation to me and I thoroughly enjoyed the way Kiernan developed this novel.
I received an advanced copy of this novel via a GoodReads giveaway. All opinions are my own.
#UniverseofTwo #StephenPKiernan #WilliamMorrow #TheBookClubGirls #BookClubGirl #GoodReadsFirsttoRead
This book took me completely by surprise. I really liked Kiernan’s earlier book “The Baker’s Secret” so felt comfortably sure that I would enjoy this one. But I never imagined that a book, inspired by the life of the man that developed the detonator for the atom bomb, would, or even could, contain such beautiful writing and feelings of such tenderness. My heart really felt as though it would break for Charlie as he struggled with his consciousness for creating a device – the Gadget – that took so many lives.
The story opens with Charlie’s musician wife Brenda looking back on her life with Charlie. I could sense the moments of regret she had for not always appreciating Charlie for his best qualities. Then their love story plays out throughout the rest of the book.
But this book is much more than a love story. While one side of Charlie was the mathematician, he also had a strongly sensitive side that loved working on organs. Yes, organs. He later went on to build organs. I learned quite a bit about the beauty and complexity of the organ as I read the book. But I also enjoyed the chapters that dealt with the scientific work Charlie did. Charlie’s feelings of guilt and redemption were remarkably balanced.
“…the greatest kinds of strength are hidden, and move slowly, and cannot be stopped by anything until they have changed the world. Which he did twice.”
The character development was superb, giving a vast array of people who were a part of Charlie and Brenda’s life. All the characters were presented in ways that I actually had an emotional response to them, whether it was Charlie’s fellow workers – some of whom also dealt with their own moral dilemmas – or the townspeople who engaged more with Brenda. The townspeople, who provided the support services, for the men “on the Hill” had no idea what was being developed. They all felt completely authentic with their strengths and their flaws.
“Whatever you love, no matter how fiercely, you will lose it one day. That is the only certainty. Therefore be as kind as you can.”
Thanks to the publisher William Morrow for a copy of this book to read and review. All opinions are my own.
Universe of Two by Stephen Kiernan is a masterpiece that goes deep and thought provoking! Read this book and discuss it with your book club, your faith groups and anyone who wants to read a masterpiece and go deep!
I won an arc copy from goodreads. The love story and history in this book was captivating and held my attention throughout the chapters. I would recommend it!