Equilateral

If I don't have a certain book in mind when I go to the library, I stroll the aisles between the shelves and look at the books.  I search for the books that are on the end shelves facing outwards sitting on little book stands.  I think the librarians put the best books on display like this so we can find them easier.  I've had a lot of good luck checking out books that I got out of book stands.  And that is why I grabbed Equilateral by Ken Kalfus; it was not shelved spine outwards like the others but in a book stand.  I didn't know a thing about the author or the book.  The curly haired woman on the cover was intriguing.  I never would have guessed that this book was about an astronomer digging a 300 mile equilateral triangle in the Egyptian desert, filling it with petroleum, and lighting it on fire in the hopes of making contact with life on Mars.  900 miles of digging!  At first the writing was about the mathematics and the engineering.  Trucking water out to the desert to sustain the work of 900 workers digging in the sand is no easy feat.  As the book continues I began to realize that this astronomer has been out in the sun too long.  Malaria is suspected but so is insanity.  So much time and effort has been put into this project by investors from France and England that it's too late to turn back now.  At first I thought this book had nothing to do with modern day life.  In the second half of the story the conflicts between science and politics, Muslims and Christians, and men and women makes it seem all too much like modern day.  Ken Kalfus has a very creative mind to come up with this plot.  This book is like no other.