The Theory of Everything

 ‘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.

PRAISE FOR THE THEORY OF EVERYTHING

‘Kassab’s book poses questions about the novel form and answers them in ways that are continuously surprising and probing. It is both personal and expansive; introspective and ambitious.’ – Kylie Mirmohamadi, author Diving, Falling