What is the main theme of Feel the Spin?

I think that there is more than one, but a primary theme of my novel is this question: 'What are the limits of our knowledge?'

The story examines this question by showing how different people react to change during a turbulent period in US history. I incorporated significant historical events into the story, such as the Centennial Exhibition of 1876, to illustrate that our collective knowledge as human beings was advancing then at a great clip.

The events of the period had profound effects on the major characters: Thomas Walters, his wife Sara, his friend Klaus Fischer (a professor of Latin from Germany), and three entertaining college students. Joseph and Mary are two former slaves who work for, and are befriended by Thomas and Sara Walters.

Is knowledge fixed, or is it ever-changing?

My characters demonstrate attitudes and beliefs about the world as they see it, and dramatic tension is fueled by conflicting ideas about what is truth. It is then, as today, about science and rationality versus superstition and myth; secularism versus religion. Isn’t it fascinating that we face the very same issues in the world today?

What do we know that is factually true, and from what do we derive meaning in our everyday lives? These are questions, explored in Feel the Spin, that motivate so many of us today, as they have for our forebears.