If you were given access to a library with your entire history-from birth to death-what would change?
When a math professor, Edom Thompson, is given access to a library containing the narrative of his life-from birth to death-he, naturally, has a few questions. Some of them are easily answered by passages found in his library. Others, like whether time spent in the library can amount to any measurable good, are not so easily answered.
Edom's decision to bring his best friend, Naomi (an art history professor), and his oldest graduate student, Thomas, to the library only leads to regret-the library's existence causes Thomas to careen towards neurosis. Edom believes that the library's texts can help him fix what he has caused, while Naomi isn't so sure.
As the library's logic begins to intrude on the world beyond its walls, friendships strain, ordinary choices grow charged, and knowledge itself starts to feel dangerous. What begins as an intellectual puzzle slowly becomes a personal and moral reckoning.
Blending mathematics, art theory, and philosophical fiction, A Free Will Manifold is a reflective novel about free will, determinism, and the fragile space between knowing and living.
