109 East Palace: Robert Oppenheimer and the Secret City of Los Alamos by Jennet Conant; Abridged MP3 Audio Book; Narrator Anne Twomey

They were told as little as possible. Their orders were to go to Santa Fe, New Mexico, and report for work at a classified Manhattan Project site, a location so covert it was known to them only by the mysterious address: 109 East Palace.

They were greeted by Dorothy McKibbin, an attractive widow who was the least likely person imaginable to run a front for a clandestine defense laboratory. They stepped through her threshold into a parallel universe—the desert hideaway where Robert Oppenheimer and a team of world-famous scientists raced to build the first atomic bomb before Germany and bring World War II to an end.

Despite all the obstacles, Oppie managed to forge a vibrant community at Los Alamos through the sheer force of his personality. Dorothy devoted herself to taking care of him and his crew, and supported him through the terrifying preparations for the test explosion at Trinity and the harrowing aftermath of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

In this deeply moving account, Conant reveals an enigmatic man, who served his country at tremendous personal cost and whose singular achievement, and subsequent undoing, is at the root of our present nuclear predicament.

"The Manhattan Project was a chapter of history rich in the drama of human strengths and frailties, as Jennet Conant chronicles in her illuminating 109 East Palace.... Yet, for all the doubts and hardships, the scientists and workers at Los Alamos were part of something extraordinary.... Thanks to Conant's vivid book, we understand why."

-- BusinessWeek

"A haunting, beautifully realized and highly entertaining story.... A stunning accomplishment."

-- Edmonton Journal

"Terrifically engaging reading.... A story that, especially in times of uncertain security, we should read and heed."

-- San Jose Mercury News

"A unique and interesting portrait of the development of the atomic bomb and the brilliant man who oversaw the process.... Conant gives the reader one story after another, revealing the humanity of these people within the framework of the project that ushered the world into the Atomic Age.... Highly readable."

-- San Antonio Express-News

"Bears the weight of inexorable drama.... Excels in showing how bedeviled the brilliant, oddly spineless but extraordinarily powerful Oppenheimer was."

-- St. Petersburg Times

"A spellbinding account of a venture that often teetered on the brink while the future of the world lay at stake.... Vividly told, the interplay of personalities that would ultimately transform the world."

-- Kirkus Reviews (starred)

"More than any other account of Los Alamos that I've read, Conant's narrative evokes the texture of life there.... A well-told narrative of daily life in a top-secret operation."

-- Newsday

"An engaging portrait of life on the remote mesa that served as backdrop for the world's most audacious scientific enterprise.... Conant packs her book with colorful, little-known details that bring the quotidian side of the bomb-building effort to life."

-- Baltimore Sun

Jennet Conant is the author of the New York Times bestsellers The Irregulars: Roald Dahl and the British Spy Ring in Wartime Washington and Tuxedo Park: A Wall Street Tycoon and the Secret Palace of Science That Changed the Course of World War II. A former journalist, she has written for Vanity Fair, Esquire, GQ, Newsweek, and The New York Times. She lives in New York City and Sag Harbor, New York.