The Last Theorem

The novel originated from approximately 100 pages of notes and an incomplete manuscript by Arthur C. Clarke, which he provided to Frederik Pohl due to his own declining health. Pohl completed the narrative in close consultation with Clarke, who reviewed and approved the final manuscript shortly before his death in 2008.

The novel features a fictional, short, and elementary proof of the theorem, which differs significantly from the actual, highly complex proof established by Andrew Wiles in the 1990s. The mathematical content in the story is a narrative device rather than a reflection of real-world mathematical history.