The debut novel by David Samuel Allen
A Free Will Manifold
a novel
A beguiling tale of people trying to edit their lives into better versions of themselves… an entertaining read full of curiosity about the puzzles of existence.
If you were given access to a library with your entire history — from birth to death — what would change?
The story
When a mathematician encounters an impossible library containing the complete record of his life, curiosity gives way to unease. The books are meticulous and intimate, cataloging not only his past, but his apparent future.
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.
A Borgesian novel of ideas — in the lineage of Jorge Luis Borges, Umberto Eco, and Paul Auster, with the cerebral pull of Donna Tartt and A. S. Byatt. For readers who love metafiction, intellectual mysteries, and fiction where mathematics, art, and philosophy collide.
Get the book
Available in paperback, hardcover & e-book
E-book
Editions
- Paperback
- ISBN 978-1-63991-165-3
- Hardcover
- ISBN 978-1-63991-172-1
- E-book
- ISBN 978-1-63991-166-0
- Edition
- First Edition, 2026
Print editions can be ordered from any bookstore or library. Published by Locrian Books — an imprint of F-flat Books · Philadelphia, PA.
