THE ALCHEMY OF AIR A Jewish Genius, a Doomed Tycoon, and the Scientific Discovery That Fed the World but Fueled the Rise of Hitler

Thomas Hager’s gift for narrative is on display in this account of a discovery that has had incalculable influence on human history: the Haber-Bosch process for producing ammonia from nitrogen in the atmosphere. By profiling the two German chemists who perfected it, Hager weaves the rich story of how this process has fed the world with fertilizers and helped it wage two terrible wars with explosives. Unfortunately, Adam Verner’s narration seems utterly detached from the text. His pace is languid, even dull, and he routinely misses the cadences of the author’s sentences, emphasizing the wrong words and interrupting the flow of Hager’s prose. It’s a disappointing telling of a fascinating story that deserves better. D.B. © AudioFile 2011, Portland, Maine [Published: APRIL 2011]