Applied Quantum Entanglement

When she was four years old, Emma was found in a park with little more than a note and Mister Nose, her floppy purple stuffed cat. Alone in the world with no family and no friends, what happened next is remarkable and thoroughly human: People connected with her, entangled their lives with hers, gave her strength, courage and love.

She traveled from abandonment to love to loneliness to joy.

She sank to the deepest depths of despair.

And then she changed the world.

"Applied Quantum Entanglement: The Story of a Girl" is about how families form, how people affect each other, and about the meaning of belonging. A diverse group of characters emphasizes the unexpected nature of these human connections: A gay couple, an undocumented immigrant, a Russian soldier, a Hindu family, and others. The events of the story take place from 2009 through 2066. About half the story is set in India, the rest in New York and Boston.

Emma's story shows her abandoned at age four, discovering love as a teenager, and unexpectedly becoming a mother herself at twenty. She gets trapped in a war zone with her baby and makes a life-altering decision. With the help of a snarky Russian soldier, she struggles to escape. And continues to struggle with what happened during the war for the rest of her life.

While books are not rated like movies, this is a PG-13 story with some language, non-explicit sex, war violence, brief ideation of suicide. Religious beliefs underlie some plot elements, but there is no proselytizing or advocacy for or against any religion.

The title refers to a physical phenomenon where widely separated particles mysteriously affect each other.