A Theory of All Things

Tragedy tore the Bennett children apart when their mother walked out on them after the birth of her last child, followed by the suicide of a brother. Now, the five grown siblings, each brilliant, troubled and a little wacky, face personal crises that will bring them back together in a new way.

Mark, a student at Stanford University is brilliant at String Theory but a novice at relationships. Having made a fatal faux pas at a university function, he now must have “sessions” with the university’s formidable psychologist, Dr. Himmel, and family issues—as well as the hopeless love he carries for a co-worker—emerge.

Mary, the eldest sister and surrogate mother, struggles with caring for their father Frank, a once famous furniture- maker, whose dementia is spiraling beyond Mary’s control.

Luke, the fragile youngest brother has been latched onto by a tattooed nymph named Willow.

Ellie, artist and free spirit, whose much younger lover has left her pregnant and alone on a far-flung Greek island, asks Mary to come get her and bring her home to Santa Barbara to have her baby.

Sarah, Ellie’s identical twin, and up and coming New York photographer, has a drama of her own. She has discovered a homeless woman who may or may not be her mother, Jean.

Told in e-mails, missed phone messages, and their unique and sometimes heartbreaking voices, A Theory of All Things weaves a lyrical, mesmerizing story of a family, who has loved and lost, who is broken, but is mending.

PEGGY LEON divides her time between Santa Barbara, California, where she wishes she lived, and Cooperstown, New York where she lives, writes and teaches. Her previous novel, Mother Country, a Book Sense pick, was published by The Permanent Press.