A Theory of All Things — Peggy Leon

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.