The Theory of Almost Everything

Price: $17.95

Item #00043 The Theory of Almost Everything. Salvatore Pane.

Place Published: Braddock, PA
Publisher: Braddock Avenue Books
Date Published: December 2018
ISBN: 9781732895614

Synopsis:

The world is in crisis. Every day geopolitical tensions and uncontrollable natural disasters threaten to destroy life as we know it, and for cosmologist Dr. Theodore “Teddy” Copeland, getting lost in his work seems to be the only reasonable stance to take as the planet drifts toward its long, ugly decline into oblivion. But after years of living hidden in the comforting nostalgia of the past, Copeland makes one last attempt to put his nihilism aside and act. Tapped to join a group of renowned scientists and engineers, including Dr. Nessa Newmar and Dr. Delbar Javari, Copeland finds himself in an underground facility called Perro Caliente. Through hard days and harder nights, Copeland and the others work tirelessly to “save humanity from itself.” And as their energy reaches a crescendo, it becomes clear that even if Teddy Copeland can redeem the world, he may not be able to save himself. By turns sobering and darkly comic, The Theory of Almost Everything is the perfect novel for our age of anxiety.

Praise for The Theory of Almost Everything

Pane writes with such energy and wit that the reader gets blown away, zapped, caught up in a zany, madcap adventure full of nuclear experiments... This book reminded me of Connie Willis, Charles Yu, or Douglas Adams: sci-fi with heart and smarts—and humor.
—Amber Sparks, author of The Unfinished World and May We Shed These Human Bodies

Wading in the territories where quantum physics meets the human predicament, Salvatore Pane has created a multiverse where every parallel reality in which he has written this novel will make you laugh and cry. The remaining universes are probably evil or apocalyptic and aren't worth visiting. The Theory of Almost Everything hooked the sci-fi fanboy in me with wormholes and secret labs but pulled me through its pages by my heart. Told with wit and insight, this novel will have you embracing all of the possibilities of who you are and who you could have been.
—Sequoia Nagamatsu, author of Where We Go When All We Were Is Gone

Praise for Last Call in the City of Bridges:

Quite obviously, Salvatore Pane’s mind has been dunked in video games, social media, comic books, the WebNet, and everything else our august literary authorities believe promote illiteracy. I’d like to hand the authorities Pane’s novel—a funny, moving, melancholy, sad, and immensely literate book about what being young and confused feels like these days—and tell them, 'See? Things are going to be fine!
—Tom Bissell author of Extra Lives: Why Video Game Matter

Like the comic book heroes he obsesses over, Michael Bishop has an origin story, the story of the first wound that makes his powers necessary—and in Last Call in the City of Bridges, Michael at last faces into that tragedy, resurfacing suddenly at the mid-point of his twenties, those years of snark and expectation spent proofreading DVD subtitles, drinking literature-themed cocktails, and pining over preacher's daughters and college crushes. In this witty and charming debut, Salvatore Pane reminds us that while you can't retcon your past, you can perhaps learn to live up to its responsibilities, by using your powers not necessarily to save the ones you love from loss, but to care for those left behind in its wake. 
—Matt Bell, author of In the House Upon the Dirt Between the Lake and the Woods and Scrapper

Author Bio

Salvatore Pane is the author of the novel Last Call in the City of Bridges in addition to the nonfiction Mega Man 3. His work has appeared in American Short Fiction, Indiana Review, Hobart, and many other venues. He holds an MFA in Creative Writing from the University of Pittsburgh and teaches English at the University of St. Thomas. He was born and raised in Scranton, Pennsylvania and can be reached at www.salvatore-pane.com.

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