The Schrödinger Girl - Hardcover

by Laurel Brett (Author)

"The Schrödinger Girl illuminates, explains, and juggles complex concepts with ease, leaving readers pondering the multiple realities after the book is finished." --Electric Literature

Garrett Adams, an uptight behavioral psychology professor who refuses to embrace the 1960s, is in a slump. The dispirited rats in his latest experiment aren't yielding results, and his beloved Yankees are losing. As he sits at a New York City bar watching the Yanks strike out, he knows he needs a change.

At a Columbus Circle bookstore he meets a mysterious young woman, Daphne, who draws him into the turbulent and exciting world of Vietnam War protest politics and the music of Bob Dylan and the Beatles. He starts to emerge from the numbness and grief over his father's death in World War II.

When Daphne evolves into four separate versions of herself, Garrett's life becomes complicated as he devotes himself to answering questions about character and destiny raised by her iterations. His obsession threatens to upend his relationship with Caroline, a beautiful art historian, destroy his teaching job, and dissolve his friendship with his old pal Jerry.

The Daphnes seem to exist in separate realities that challenge the laws of physics and call into question everything Garrett thought he knew. He must decide what is vision, what is science, and what is delusion.

Author Biography

Laurel Brett, a refugee from the 1960s, was born in Manhattan in the middle of the last century. Her passionate interest in the arts and social justice led her to a PhD and a long career as a community college professor. She expanded her award-winning dissertation on Thomas Pynchon's work into a groundbreaking analysis, Disquiet on the Western Front: World War II and Postmodern Fiction, which was published by Cambridge Scholars. She lives in Port Jefferson, New York