The Unknowns

Eric Muller has been trying to hack the girlfriend problem his whole life. But his attempts to decode women - including a journal of 'research' about the girls in his high school class that fell into the wrong hands, with catastrophic results - only confirm that he's better at programming computers than interacting with human beings.

By 2002, Eric is a Silicon Valley millionaire. He's managed to coax girls into bed with overpriced cocktails, ironic remarks, and carefully timed intimacies. But hiding his insecurities behind wit and empathy gets lonely, and true love remains beyond his grasp.

So when he falls for Maya Marcom, a beautiful and fiercely opinionated young journalist, and, miraculously, she falls for him too, he's in uncharted territory. But his perfect new girlfriend's past is troubled by something dark and unresolved that sends Eric's obsessive mind spiraling into confusion and doubt. Can he reconcile his need for order and logic with the mystery and chaos of love?

Gabriel Roth was born and raised in London and educated at Brown University and at San Francisco State University, from which he received a Master of Fine Arts in creative writing. For several years he was employed as a reporter and editor at the San Francisco Bay Guardian. He now works as a writer and software developer and lives with his family in Brooklyn, New York. The Unknowns is his first novel.

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'Gabriel Roth is a natural. This is a very assured first book - fast, funny, full of snappy dialogue, and never losing its poise even when it's glancing into the abyss. I think he's a find.' Sebastian Faulks

'A wise and mature novel, a cool and contemporary one. It announces the arrival of a bright new talent.' Andrew O'Hagan