Need a cozy sweatshirt, bookish tote, or mug? Get one at the BookBrowse Merch Store!

Excerpt from Turing's Delirium by Edmundo Paz Soldan, plus links to reviews, author biography & more

Summary |  Excerpt |  Reviews |  Beyond the Book |  Readalikes |  Genres & Themes |  Author Bio

Turing's Delirium by Edmundo Paz Soldan

Turing's Delirium

by Edmundo Paz Soldan
  • BookBrowse Review:
  • Critics' Consensus (7):
  • First Published:
  • Jul 1, 2006, 288 pages
  • Paperback:
  • Jun 2007, 304 pages
  • Rate this book

About this Book

Print Excerpt


You turn on the computer and check your e-mail at both the public and the private address. You spit your gum out, put another piece in your mouth, and all of a sudden at your private address you find an e-mail consisting of a single line:

RZWIJWJWDTZWMFSIXFWJXYFNSJIBNYMGQTTI

You notice the sequence FWJ XYFNSJI. Frequency analysis won’t take more than a few minutes. Each letter has its own personality, and even though it seems to be out of place, it is betrayed, whispers, speaks, shouts, tells its story, misses its place on earth — paper. Who could have sent you this message? From where? You don’t recognize the address. That’s strange — only about ten people know your private e-mail. Someone has managed to get past the Black Chamber’s firewalls and is teasing your heart with a crude message.

All messages from within the Black Chamber come encrypted to your private address and your computer deciphers them automatically. Perhaps something in the program failed. You hit a couple of keys to try to decode the message. No luck. It isn’t encrypted using the Black Chamber’s software, which confirms your suspicions: the message was sent by someone unknown.

It is a taunt. For now, you had better do what you do best: frequency analysis. The j has to be a vowel: a? e? o? Common sense tells you it’s an e.

You soon know: it is a simple code ciphered by substitution, a variation that, according to Suetonius, was used by the emperor Julius Caesar. Each letter has been moved five spaces to the right, so that the j is really an e, the g is a b, and so on. XYFNSJI spells stained.

MURDERERYOURHANDSARESTAINEDWITHBLOOD

Who’s the murderer? You? Why are your hands stained?

Spanish edition copyright © 2003 by Edmundo Paz Soldán, English translation copyright © 2006 by Lisa Carter. Reprinted with permission by Houghton Mifflin Company.

Membership Advantages
  • Reviews
  • "Beyond the Book" articles
  • Free books to read and review (US only)
  • Find books by time period, setting & theme
  • Read-alike suggestions by book and author
  • Book club discussions
  • and much more!
  • Just $60 for 12 months or $20 for 3 months.
  • More about membership!

Beyond the Book:
  The Republic of Bolivia

BookBrowse Book Club

  • Book Jacket
    The Jackal's Mistress
    by Chris Bohjalian
    From the New York Times bestselling author of Hour of the Witch, a Civil War love story of a Confederate wife and a wounded Yankee.

Members Recommend

  • Book Jacket

    The Antidote
    by Karen Russell

    A gripping dust bowl epic about five characters whose fates become entangled after a storm ravages their small Nebraskan town.

  • Book Jacket

    Girl Falling
    by Hayley Scrivenor

    The USA Today bestselling author of Dirt Creek returns with a story of grief and truth.

  • Book Jacket

    The Dream Hotel
    by Laila Lalami

    A Read with Jenna pick. A riveting novel about one woman's fight for freedom, set in a near future where even dreams are under surveillance.

  • Book Jacket

    Fagin the Thief
    by Allison Epstein

    A thrilling reimagining of the world of Charles Dickens, as seen through the eyes of the infamous Jacob Fagin, London's most gifted pickpocket, liar, and rogue.

  • Book Jacket

    Jane and Dan at the End of the World
    by Colleen Oakley

    Date Night meets Bel Canto in this hilarious tale.

  • Book Jacket

    Raising Hare
    by Chloe Dalton

    A moving and fascinating meditation on freedom, trust, and loss through one woman's friendship with a wild hare.

Who Said...

Don't join the book burners. Don't think you are going to conceal faults by concealing evidence that they ever ...

Click Here to find out who said this, as well as discovering other famous literary quotes!

Wordplay

Solve this clue:

B O a F F T

and be entered to win..

Your guide toexceptional          books

BookBrowse seeks out and recommends the best in contemporary fiction and nonfiction—books that not only engage and entertain but also deepen our understanding of ourselves and the world around us.