Description

**A DAILY TELEGRAPH BOOK OF THE YEAR 2022**

One of the world’s most celebrated cosmologists presents her breakthrough explanation of our origins in the multiverse.

In recent years, Laura Mersini-Houghton’s ground-breaking theory, spectacularly vindicated with observational evidence, has turned the multiverse from philosophical speculation to one of the most compelling and credible explanations of our universe’s origins.

In Before the Big Bang, she interweaves the story of how she arrived at this theory with her journey from communist Albania, where she was born and brought up, to the West, showing how her unconventional path helped her to challenge orthodoxies and become one of the most courageous thinkers on the world stage of theoretical physics.

‘Fascinating’ Roger Penrose, Nobel laureate, and author of The Road to Reality

‘There is no better guide to the bizarre, and sometimes paradoxical, cosmic super-realm than Laura Mersini-Houghton’ Paul Davies, author of What’s Eating the Universe?

‘A fascinating and unusual hybrid of pop science and memoir’ 5*, Stephen Poole, Daily Telegraph

‘From one of the world’s most renowned cosmologists … a fascinating read’ Stephon Alexander, author of Fear of a Black Universe

Publisher Review

Laura Mersini-Houghton's Before the Big Bang provides a fascinating account of the background and underlying motives for her intriguing proposal for the physical principles that may have governed the explosive origin of our universe -- Roger Penrose, University of Oxford, Nobel laureate, and author of Cycles of Time and The Road to Reality What if our universe, vast though it may be, is but an infinitesimal fragment of reality? What would this 'multiverse' be like? What would be the implications? And how could we possibly test the idea? There is no better guide to the bizarre, and sometimes paradoxical, cosmic super-realm than Laura Mersini-Houghton, who has devoted her research to seeking the tell-tale signs in the sky hinting that our universe is indeed not alone -- Paul Davies, Arizona State University and author of What's Eating the Universe? And other cosmic questions From one of the world's most renowned cosmologists, Before the Big Bang offers insights into the Big Bang and, beyond it, into the majestic world of a quantum multiverse. The tale of Laura Mersini-Houghton's journey of discovery, interlaced with her personal stories of growing up in communist Albania and breaking free of its confines, makes for a fascinating read -- Stephon Alexander, Brown University, and author of Fear of a Black Universe and The Jazz of Physics