cover image Turbulence

Turbulence

Giles Foden, . . Knopf, $25.95 (315pp) ISBN 978-0-307-59277-4

Foden emerged as a formidable storyteller with The Last King of Scotland , and now he tackles WWII and the beaches at Normandy from an unforeseen perspective: that of Henry Meadows, a Cambridge-educated meteorologist tasked with befriending the reclusive meteorological genius and conscientious objector Wallace Ryman and learning the secrets of the mysterious Ryman number for the Allies, who hope to use it to forecast the perfect moment to launch the D-Day offensive. Questions of turbulence abound as Meadows carries out his scientific reconnaissance amid fascinatingly sketched characters like prescient scientists Brecher and Pyke, Ryman's scheming wife, and the enigmatic Ryman himself, but it is the meticulous fusion of science and military history that dazzles, coming off like an exhilarating fusion of Richard Powers and John le Carré. As the deadline mounts and Ryman takes matters into his own hands, the quickly accelerating plot threatens to overwhelm both the book's methodical pace and the occasionally glutted cast of characters—but, by then, Foden's point, that certainty and probability are values batted about like balloons in the atmosphere, has pierced its target. (Aug.)