An Exceptionally Simple Theory (Of Absolutely Everything)

Chris Hayes is a Capetonian architect about to turn 40. He's built up a lucrative firm and provides well for his wife, Tracy, and their sixteen-year-old only son, Gabriel. But on the morning of New Year's Eve, Chris wakes up to persistent scratching in the roof of his Southern Suburbs house, as squirrels chew into the roof-beams. That squeaking and thumping sets off a year of changes: Chris's adoptive mother has gone senile, Gabriel is a tightly locked secret, even after Chris removes his bedroom door at the hinges, and Tracy is never home and becomes ever leaner through gym and plastic surgery. Chris's partner is on at him to sell a portion of the business in order to cash in on BEE deals, when he's not bugging Chris about joining his family for Friday night Sabbath dinner, and Chris wants . . . well, what does Chris want? An Exceptionally Simple Theory (of Absolutely Everything) is about Bishopscourt, botox, and braaivleis, and about being adopted. It's about Range Rovers, luxury game lodges and friends you've known forever. It's a book about growing older, maybe growing up, and how a man finds what he really needs if he has everything he ever thought he wanted.