‘In The Theory of Everything, Kassab realises the potential and fulfils the promise of her earlier work. This is a writer at her intellectual and poetic peak. Innovative, ambitious, unapologetically intellectual, fearlessly honest, deeply emotional. Read this book - you will be changed.’ – Shankari Chandran, Miles Franklin–award winning author of Chai Time at Cinnamon Gardens

Good News: The worst has already happened.
Bad News: Even worse is on the way.

This is a fictional theory, a rant, a manifesto, an engagement or disengagement with the times, a record; it is bearing witness, a dramatisation of actual events, a horror-scape, either a monologue or dialogue, a testament, travel guide, handbook, textbook, potential encyclopaedia; it is five mini-novels or else five post-novels, an epic, a drop in the ocean, an homage, a reference, one long secret handshake, an agreement, a wink; it is an explosion of form, tangential, discursive, a firming of the foundations, a lament, an absurdist comedy with realism that is as realistic as it gets; it is a spectrum, shades of black from the dark to the next shade up from white, a proliferation, a step back, a righting, a note to oneself, a line in the sand or a gust in the form of a structure-shaking gale; it is a dance (a two-footed, single-person linedance), an experiment, pure science, flicking the finger; it is, of course, backing away, crossing the street and avoiding eye contact; it is fantasy, humour, a romance without any leads, a defiance, a subdued rebellion, an anti-philosophical philosophy; it is pacifism that instigates a fight, a denouncement in the form of a laugh, an exploration, an adventure, a time lapse, a panorama, a conclusion; you may just have to read the theory because these are just alluding-to-the-theory words.

About the Author

Yumna Kassab is a writer from Western Sydney. She studied medical science and neuroscience at university. Her fiction has been listed for prizes including the Miles Franklin Literary Award, Prime Minister's Literary Awards, Victorian Premier’s Literary Awards, Queensland Literary Awards, NSW Premier’s Literary Awards, and The Stella Prize. Her works include the short fiction collection The House of Youssef and the novels Australiana, The Lovers, Politica and The Theory of Everything. She is the inaugural Parramatta Laureate in Literature.