Alan Lightman: Mr. g

Date: Tuesday January 31, 2012
Time: 7:00 pm

Details: FREE
LOCATION: The Center for Fiction, 17 E 47th St between Fifth and Madison Aves (212-755-6710, www.centerforfiction.org). Subway: B, D, F, M to 47-50th Sts-Rockefeller Center; 6, E, V to Lexington-Third Ave-51st St; 7, B, D, F, V to 42nd St-Fifth Ave-Sixth Ave.

"As I remember, I had just woken up from a nap when I decided to create the universe." So begins Alan Lightman’s playful and profound new novel, Mr g, the story of Creation as told by God. Barraged by the constant advisements and bickerings of Aunt Penelope and Uncle Deva, who live with their Nephew in the shimmering Void, Mr g proceeds to create time, space, and matter. Then come stars, planets, animate matter, consciousness, and finally intelligent beings with moral dilemmas. Mr g is all powerful but not all knowing and does much of his invention by trial and error.

On January 31, Alan will speak at the Center about this work, which combines science, philosophy, and theology into a novel which Publishers Weekly calls "a touching, imaginative rendition of God’s creation of the universe."

Alan Lightman is the author of five previous novels, a book-length narrative poem, two collections of essays, and several books on science. His work has appeared in The Atlantic, Granta, The New Yorker, The New York Review of Books, and Nature, among other publications. A theoretical physicist as well as a novelist, he has served on the faculties of Harvard and MIT, and was the first person to receive a dual faculty appointment at MIT in science and in the humanities.