I first came across J. Robert Oppenheimer when my Physics teacher at school urged all of us to watch the BBC series way back when. I was always intrigued by the history of Oppenheimer from University to Los Alamos to the witch hunt of McCarthyism (and in particular Richard Strauss) right to the awarding of the Enrico Fermi Award from President Lyndon B. Johnson in 1963. This book by Kai Bird and Martin Sherwin not only answered all my questions but many more. It unquestionably documents Oppenheimer as an incredibly gifted, generous, compassionate but conflicted man. You can congratulate the authors for the years of painstaking research, interviews and collation of information alone, but to build and a compelling narrative that you can’t put down is indeed a tremendous achievement. At times the book reads like a thriller then at other times it’s a documentation of the greatest 20th century scientists all with the background (initially the Spanish Civil War) of the World War II and future wars. He quotes the line "Now I am become Death, the destroyer of worlds" - a paraphrase from the 32nd verse of the 11th chapter of the Bhagavad Gita after the successful testing at Trinity, but accepts the devastating consequences of what must follow. J. Robert Oppenheimer will always be regarded as controversial figure, but if you want to understand the man, the scientist, the patriot and the conflicted genius, this is the book to read. This book not only joins the dots it fills in the missing spaces in-between.

I admit, I picked this up after watching Christopher Nolan's new film. I would, in fact, recommend seeing the film before you read the book, as it gives you a clear sense of how Oppenheimer's life was picked up from this book to the screen, so you don't get lost in dense detail. Thankfully you don't need a PhD in Quantum Physics to read this book. More than anything this is a character study expertly woven through the context of American and Global History. This did not feel like a book that was over 700 pages. The writing was vivid and the testimonies were compelling. I don't know how Bird and Sherwin managed to write something so masterful, but I wanted to re-read it as soon as I finished it. It was a real joy to read even though the topic matter is undoubtedly heavy.

This is definitely the best biography I’ve read so far.