What do you do if you're a teenager, stranded by your parents in New Delhi, without any sort of adult supervision, with easy access to all sorts of strange drugs? If you're James McGirk, you use your bad trip to develop a philosophy that explains the whole world and all of its complexities.

In A Grand Theory of Everything, McGirk takes us from the winding backstreets of New Delhi to his cramped apartment in New York City, and then on to his eventual relocation with his wife to the empty plains of Oklahoma. And, most importantly, he takes us inside his own head, where his weird theories take shape to help him understand his alienation from his family, his struggles to find a career, his wife's failing health, and all of life's hardships.

James McGirk was born in London and grew up in Madrid and New Delhi. He's fascinated with technology, fine art, and globalization. A former geopolitical analyst and computer game writer, these days you'll find McGirk filing stories about Oklahoma and teaching writing at Northeastern State University in Tahlequah, OK. He has an MFA and a BA in Writing from Columbia University.