A great way to get interested in biographies
Among a raft of biographies that depend almost comically on Freudian psychology to draw studies of their characters, this one stands out as mostly avoiding that tool, and still managing to paint a picture of the person rather than of just his accomplishments.
Oppenheimer was very much a victim of the times in which he worked and lived, and the authors also do a very good job of sketching in just enough historical perspective to put Oppenheimer in a "place" historically without drowning readers in events and dates.
Overall, a nice way to break into biography for people new to the genre, because it reads much more like a novel than a textbook. Well deserving of its award-winner status.