The Man Who Knew Too Much
Alan Turing and the Invention of the Computer
The Great Discoveries Series
- By: David Leavitt
- Narrated by: Richard Powers
- Length: 9 hours 14 minutes
Description
A "skillful, literate" (New York Times Book Review) biography of the persecuted genius who helped create the modern computer
To solve one of the great mathematical problems of his day, Alan Turing proposed an imaginary computer. Then, attempting to break a Nazi code during World War II, he successfully designed and built one, thus ensuring the Allied victory. Turing became a champion of artificial intelligence, but his work was cut short. As an openly gay man at a time when homosexuality was illegal in England, he was convicted and forced to undergo a humiliating "treatment" that may have led to his suicide.
With a novelist's sensitivity, David Leavitt portrays Turing in all his humanity—his eccentricities, his brilliance, his fatal candor—and elegantly explains his work and its implications.
Audiobook gift memberships
Gift audiobooks to anyone in the world (including yourself!) from the comfort of your home. You choose the membership (1, 3, 6, or 12 months/credits), your gift recipient picks their own audiobooks, and your local bookstore is supported by your purchase.
Start gifting
The Great Discoveries Series Series

Quantum Man
By: Lawrence M. Krauss
Length: 9 hours 12 minutes
Abridged: No
A gripping new scientific biography of the revered Nobel Prize–winning physicist (and curious character) Richard Feynman.
Perhaps the greatest physicist of the second half of the twentieth century, Richard Feynman changed the way we think about quantum mechanics, the most perplexing of all physical theories. Here Lawrence M. Krauss, himself a... Read more »
Learn more
The Man Who Knew Too Much
By: David Leavitt
Narrated by: Richard Powers
Length: 9 hours 14 minutes
Abridged: No
A "skillful, literate" (New York Times Book Review) biography of the persecuted genius who helped create the modern computer
To solve one of the great mathematical problems of his day, Alan Turing proposed an imaginary computer. Then, attempting to break a Nazi code during World War II, he successfully designed and built one, thus ensuring the... Read more »
Learn more
The Reluctant Mr. Darwin
By: David Quammen
Narrated by: Grover Gardner
Length: 7 hours 45 minutes
Abridged: No
In September 1838, a young Englishman named Charles Darwin hit upon the idea that natural selection among competing individuals would lead to wondrous adaptations and species diversity. Twenty-one years passed between that epiphany and publication of On the Origin of Species. The human drama and scientific basis of that time constitute a... Read more »
Learn moreNotice to our customers about The Man Who Knew Too Much
Due to publisher restrictions we are unable to offer this audiobook via membership credits. To help combat restrictive licensing for our customers, we've lowered the price of this audiobook as much as we can.