The Tree of Knowledge

Book excerpt: A Booklife Editor's Pick "Filled with fascinating characters, breathtaking action... this novel grabs one's interest from page one."-Kat Kennedy, The US Review of Books Knowledge is power. It is said that the greatest chess masters can envision a match's outcome ten moves before it occurs. Imagine a person who can visualize ten steps ahead, not simply in the game of chess, but in every human interaction. Imagine a person who can see a punch before it is thrown; who knows what you are going to say before you say it; who can see every political and economic move long before it happens. Imagine a secret that can make this all possible. Mathematics professor Albert Puddles exposes this secret for himself as he is thrust into a murder investigation on the Princeton campus. The discovery leads Albert to delve into ancient religious interpretation and unmask new analytical abilities, all while teaming up with an aging mentor, a curious teaching assistant, and an elite Book Club on a frantic chase across America to recover this world-changing knowledge before it falls into dangerous hands. Albert-now embedded in a national cat-and-mouse political power play-rediscovers a woman from his past and is forced to confront his own understanding of love, rationality, power, and the true limits of the human mind.