A Theory of All Things Book

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.

Publishers Weekly

In Leon’s second novel (after Mother Country) the Bennetts, a pleasingly dysfunctional family, grapple with troubling events from their childhood: their mother’s abandonment and brother Peter’s suicide. Now scattered, the family keeps in touch via e-mails and phone messages. Mary is living in the family home, caring for their father stricken with Alzheimer’s. Her thoughtful narration grounds the book, which is otherwise filled with eccentric chapters from her siblings’ points of view. Each individually complains of a dilemma and begs to be rescued. Brother Mark is the outcast—a physicist in a family of artists who must bail the youngest, Luke, out of jail and look after their father while Mary goes to fetch pregnant Ellie from a Greek island. Eventually, the whole family reunites, along with a homeless woman, a skeptical girlfriend, a tattooed runaway, and a shabby mutt, to hash out their disturbed past. The characters are always on the verge of a breakdown, but their epiphanies save them (and us) from emotional exhaustion. Despite overused metaphors, Leon’s novel touches on very real familial issues yet maintains a playful tone. (Mar.)