The Theory of (Not Quite) Everything

With the offbeat charm of The Rosie Project and generous warmth of The One Hundred Years of Lenni and Margot, a wry, moving debut novel about a pair of unforgettable siblings and a love triangle of sorts–one with math as its beating heart.

Mimi Brotherton, younger sister of a mathematical genius, believes in truth. And, most of the time, in telling it. Her brother Art believes in facts.

Bound together by their parents’ tragic deaths, the siblings share their family home and have a strong, if unequal, relationship. Art has everything he needs (math and a devoted sister). Now, Mimi’s ready for a life of her own.

That might include love. At first, Art is cautiously enthusiastic, keen to demonstrate that love, like everything, is subject to rules. Then Mimi meets Frank, who is affable enough, but another mathematician, and Art bristles. Art is on the cusp of solving a notoriously intractable equation and success promises fame and fortune–he fears that this new man may be after his sister for the wrong reasons.

After a serious accident involves both men, Mimi is caught between them. Can she trust her heart to guide her to the truth?

In this delightful, bittersweet novel, Kara Gnodde explores how the answers to life’s questions–the bonds of family, and the calculations of the heart–follow a logic of their own.