An Elegant Theory

Coulter Zahn is a promising PhD candidate at MIT, completing his dissertation on string theory, namely the number of dimensions and shape of the universe, while his young wife Sara is expecting their first child, a boy who will be named Isaac. Coulter’s already delicate psyche becomes irreparably fragmented, however, when his dissertation is strongly discouraged by his mentor and committee chair, his estranged mother returns, and his wife informs him that she wishes to leave him and move back home to Oklahoma. His life and mental health unraveling, Coulter murders his wife and unborn son while in the midst of an argument, but before he can summon the courage to turn himself in, he catches a break in his research, discovering the true shape of the universe. Influenced by his mother, his mentor, an unorthodox psychiatrist, and his own untrustworthy psyche, Coulter must decide whether to face the consequences of his crime or finish his research, perhaps making the greatest contribution to science since Einstein’s theory of relativity. An existential psychological thriller, An Elegant Theory is a crime confessional that explores how the construction of memory and consciousness can shape motive, guilt, and identity through the lens of a modern-day mad-scientist motif.

Noah Milligan splits his time between words and numbers and is a longtime student of physics, prompting him to write his debut novel, An Elegant Theory, a draft of which was shortlisted for the 2015 Horatio Nelson Fiction Prize. His short fiction has appeared in numerous literary magazines, including MAKE, Storyscape Literary Journal, Empty Sink Publishing, and Santa Clara Review. He is a graduate of the MFA program at the University of Central Oklahoma, and he lives in Edmond, OK, with his wife and two children.