Reading this book on the development of the atom bomb during WWII was a surprise in that Oppenheimer and Teller were the only names that I had associated with the bomb from my previous reading (admittedly non-technical reading). Now come the names of Fermi, Heisenberg, Hahn, Seaborg, Szilard, Joliet-Curie, Bohr and Meitner. Many of the ones working on the bomb in the U.S. were Jewish refugees from Europe who had been working in laboratories in Rome, Berlin, Paris and Oslo. We have the race between former colleagues who had now chosen opposite sides, some making painful choices of leaving work and homes and others who could not bear to leave their homeland of Germany. Interesting portraits of families fleeing at the last minute before imminent arrest by the Gestapo. A marvel of simple explanation of the complex subject of nuclear fission. Reads like a novel. ( )