About the Book
"This is a biography of six of us-that is, six members of our family, the People of Earth. We meet our characters on a poor farm and a great estate, in a locked institution and an astronomical observatory, at the height of power and the depth of despair. Their search and their struggles are rooted in the coarsest ground of our world but reach out to the Universe. They find for us, in the grit and the stars, the least likely thing in the universe, the Great Improbability. Their story is ours." Two young women and four men, alone and peculiar, become entangled in deep mystery. Darwin's evolution has run its course, and a new survival of the fittest falls into their hands. Throughout their tangled stories, the rough hand of entropy wrestles with the gentle hand of God for the people's survival. They are we. Each carries a personal mystery, all gradually flowing into one. Meaghan Leary, an abused young woman, pulls herself out of poverty and discrimination to control all around her, but her quest for power pushes Thomas Cabot Brigham III, Esq. into criminal insanity.
An autistic mathematician named David, and his mechanical partner whom he names Ami, struggle together to develop "feeling." Aldo Marconi, a fugitive scientist, strives to decode enigmatic patterns received by his radio telescopes. Timothy Maloney, the glamorous scion of a famous political dynasty, confesses a secret and searches for those he has exploited. Their stories mingle in the Pentagon and in hospitals, in exclusive clubs and hardscrabble farms, prisons and law firms, ghettos and campuses, a laboratory and a cathedral and a reservation-places of great beauty and desolate abandonment. They meet in passion, in fear, in violence and confusion, in fulfillment and in guilt. Aspiring for love, seeking beauty, trying to find meaning and identity, they advance toward a rational faith, finally together. The two faces of entropy resolve in beauty. And the things we hold sacred are real, after all.
About the Author :
David Sayre (Dayton) works full-time developing “microgrids” in low-income neighborhoods. He has been called the “father of the industry” at national energy services conferences, has patented and published techniques of communication and energy efficiency that anticipated today’s cell phone networks and energy-saving industry, and formed a dozen companies―profit and nonprofit―around these two sciences that displace “entropy.” Sayre’s work has taken him to places and encounters that few of us experience―prisons and mental institutions, cathedrals and laboratories, the Pentagon and the White House, neighborhoods of the very rich and the very poor. The mix of those encounters with those sciences has suggested a rational moral compass and a way to comfort. Sayre is the father of five children, eight grandchildren, and four books: The Great Improbability (Peter E. Randall Publisher, 2010), a science-fiction mystery novel; Something There Is (Peter E. Randall Publisher, 2014), a series of letters to our children, seeking a rational faith; Flatland, with award-winning children’s illustrator Rebecca Emberley (Two Little Birds Books, 2014), recommended by Parents’ Choice Awards; and The Flatland Dialogues (Peter E. Randall Publisher, 2017). Evan Robertson is a self-taught illustrator living in Bucks County, Pennsylvania, who focuses on bringing great language to life. As a student of classic literature at Yale and of drama at the Juilliard School, he is inspired by beautiful language that has stood the test of time. He has partnered with the Library of Congress, the Museum of Modern Art, Penguin Random House, Doubleday, Abrams Books, Barnes & Noble, and Indigo Books. His work is available through his creative studio, Obvious State (obviousstate.com).
Review :
In one of the more brilliant essays of our time, David Sayre helps us understand what our greatest artists hinted at in their finest works - in art, drama, music, and poetry - what our best scientists came to understand through their experimentation, and what our finest mathematicians discovered in their reasoning.--Robert Cotner, Editor, Caxtonian
Sayre's novel is a powerful tale reflecting the complexity of life, relationships - human and scientific. We are drawn into the life stories of six characters and in doing so we are forced to examine our own life stories - our relationships with those around us and with the ever growing, evolving and complicated world we live in. Sayre's novel is not intended to be an easy read - it is intended to make us think and reflect - and it achieves this goal magnificently!--Jackie Jenkins-Scott, President Wheelock College Boston, Massachusetts
Turning the pages, I like the way the story hops around. Hopping around makes for readability, at least the way (the author) does it. And the sublime words that pop up here and there show that along with the fun, (he's) truly serious.--Jane Langton, Author, The Fledgling
