Welcome to Litsy!

A young physicist at Brookhaven National Labs conceives of a new, two-universe theory to put the many multi-verse theories to rest. He meets a young real estate saleswoman, and the two seem to hit it off. That same week, a deranged student shoots up a Columbia University symposium, three terrorists raid a Westbury diner, two high school students plan a school massacre in Denver, and a PTSD Iraqi veteran contemplates suicide. There's more. The surviving terrorist, Meca, and the Columbia student, Bret, are sentenced to life imprisonment at Dannemora, the State maximum security prison. In the courts is a perpetrator from a subway shooting in Brooklyn, who goes by the name Aytex Harpur. The veteran wanders to the pine barrens of Long Island. In the process, Brian, the physicist, takes Elizabeth, the real estate agent, to a Coptic Festival at St. Mark's, in Woodbury, to meet some good Arabs. Brian testifies at the trial of Meca, a point on Meca's journey to see the good in Western Civilization. Brian's two-universe theory is shot down, his attempt to show that secularization is good for the Muslim world but bad for Western countries is forgotten, and his ambition to work for CERN (Geneva, Switzerland) is scuttled. All these story lines are drawn successfully together at the end, when a prison escape at Dannemora is foiled, Bret is killed in it, Meca is reconciled to the idea that Western Civilization is indeed superior to his own, the two Denver students pay the price, and the PTSD veteran takes a mental step forward to take a 9-5 job in Roslyn. Aytex finally advances in prison to give rather than take. And Brian has the ultimate earthly consolation, a bride in Elizabeth.