At home with André and Simone Weil. Translated from the 2009 French original by Benjamin Ivry (Q2897201)

André Weil (1906--1998) is a renowned mathematician, who had a deep influence in the development of mathematics in the last century. André Weil has been called the twentieth century's ``Einstein of mathematics'', while Simone Weil is well known for her meteoric life as a philosopher-activist-mystic. Written by surviving family member and award-winning author Sylvie Weil, this volume offers snippets of the genius, quirks, love, and obsessions of the Weil clan.NEWLINENEWLINEThe book under review is about Weil's family, namely Bernard and Selma Weil (grandparents), Eveline and André Weil (parents), and two daughters (Sylvie and Susanne). One of the most important (mathematical) facts of this book concerns Weil's contribution to the understanding of the celebrated ``Riemann zeta function'', defined by NEWLINE\[NEWLINE\zeta (s)=1+\frac{1}{2^s}+\frac{1}{3^s}+\cdots +\frac{1}{n^s}+\cdots\,,NEWLINE\]NEWLINE for all real numbers \(s>1\). The definition of this function was written by André Weil on a piece of paper for his daughter when she was learning how to add fractions. This is the only formula in the book, but it signifies his constant interest in Dirichlet series and the Riemann hypothesis.NEWLINENEWLINEThis book is not a biography, neither of André Weil nor of Simone Weil. But it does allow us to enter into the Weil home and to have a tactful glance at a few colorful Jewish ancestors.