The wild numbers - Philibert Schogt

As a mathematician -- not an outstanding one, but a competent, unextraordinary pencil-pusher + Professor Isaac Swift is constantly having drummed into him that it's the prodigies of his profession, the burning suns of his little universe that advance human knowledge. Now Isaac thinks he's found the solution to Beauregard's Wild Number Problem, the puzzle that has stumped savants the world over for centuries. And Dimitri, his mentor at the university, a great mathematician himself, thinks Isaac has cracked it. If so, Isaac will have elevated himself to the ranks of the immortals. But an accusation of plagiarism from the tweed-clad mature student Leonard Vale creates a storm of violence and anguish that threatens to disrupt both the university and Isaac's sanity. A gripping story about self-doubt, ambition and delusion, but not necessarily in that order.