From early in the book, elements of the simulation intrude into the narrative (such as glitches in reality, and Peregrine the broken AI). How did you balance dropping in these clues with integrating them into Thora and Santi's (apparently real) lives? Thora and Santi must seek out the reason behind their mysterious connection before their lives lead to a tragic end for the last time. The ending is not quite what you expect it to be – I was assuming that they both needed to right a wrong or start they both would need to aid each other in fulfilling their dreams. Showing how these questions of our existence are timeless and universal. The film rights have been optioned by Atlas Entertainment and Pilot Wave, with Gal Gadot to produce and star. I spotted much news coverage of this that was, IMHO, wrong-headed, in portraying the book as an LGBTQ sci-fi novel. Thora is indeed bi-sexual, with more story time with female than male partners, but that is sooooo not what this book is about. We do know that once Hollywood gets its claws on a novel, the end product can diverge dramatically (or even melodramatically) from the source material. This initial coverage is not encouraging. But then, many film-rights options are never exercised. So we, who favor hewing as closely as possible to written source material, are a long way from having to fret over this. Thank you to NetGalley and Harper Collins U.K. Audio for providing me with the audio version of Meet Me In Another Life by Catriona Silvey.

The book seems to fall in two distinct genres that don’t traditionally go hand in hand but blend wonderfully in this story. Of course, purists might not be able to put their head around this but as I am comfortable with almost all genres, I enjoyed that change in momentum and plot. I don’t want to reveal the second genre here as it will take away your fun of discovery, but the first half is much philosophical. It raises pertinent questions about determinism and free will voiced via Santi’s and Thora’s characters respectively. You too will find yourself pondering over deeper existential questions. But after the big reveal, the focus shifts to the other genre and I was so irritated with myself that I didn’t see it coming. There are enough clues and Easter eggs scattered throughout the story for the reader to be able to make the logical leap, but I was so caught up with the philosophical side of the story that I missed out on the obvious segue. It was very smart of the author. And then, once they do figure it out, they spin in circles for several chapters/lives before figuring out what to actually do about it and then suddenly it’s over in the worst possible way. It felt so obvious and manipulative for Santi to be the one to die, that either of them had to die. I’m not even that into happy endings, but it feels like the book could have been saved by them both seeing the fulfillment of their dreams. Or, actually, I could have been really into a tragic ending where they both woke up but supplies hadn’t been sent ahead, so they’d already used up their supplies for the return home, and they both descend to the new planet with what’s left of their strength to die together, finally getting what they’d both spent lifetimes striving toward. Dreams fulfilled but at the expense of everything else, bittersweet loveliness, etc.

Featured Reviews

Meet Me In Another Life is the joyful, devastating and quietly profound debut speculative science fiction novel from Catriona Silvey in which it is asked: is it possible to remember someone you have seemingly never met ever before, and, if so, how? Thora Lišková and Santiago López meet for the first time when they are eighteen. Strangers in a foreign city, they both attend the campus at Cologne University in Germany, she as a student and he as a custodian. They bond over their shared ambition to travel to the stars. Thora thinks she’s finally found a kindred spirit, a friend for life. Until, days later, Santi is cruelly snatched away from her. That’s not the only way it happens. Santi meets Thora for the first time when he is 45, and she walks into his science classroom, a seven-year-old student who dreams of the stars; when he walks into her medical practice as an elderly patient; when her parents adopt him, aged five, as her brother; when they face each other on opposing sides of a bloody civil war. Life after life, haunted by impossible memories, Thora and Santi manage to find each other. Along the way I grew close to Thora and Santi: Thora headstrong and spiky and Santi the pious and placid one. They have some interests in common but are very different people. The story is ever changing, ever evolving, even if the setting is largely the same. There are some recurring characters – a few – though their context is sometimes different too. That might sound confusing, but actually it really didn’t feel that way. I had no idea where this was all taking me and yet I was never less than fully engaged. Many moments or conversations early in the book come to have a different meaning once the reader knows the ending. Do you have a favourite one of these?

Catriona Silvey's words take you from this life into the character's again and again and again. Letting your mind connect with and experience every word, emotion, and love they feel. I must admit that I have never read an adult fiction book that has moved me emotional in my soul, as much as this masterpiece of love through time. You can read each life cycle as its own story; then connect them all together to create a universe of existences that Catriona's writing makes you believe like you have lived them yourself.Santi and Thora challenge each other’s views in these brief moments across these shared lives, and then in the blink of an eye, their lives meet tragedies that take the many different forms of a permanent goodbye, and then the next chapter begins. It is almost like a more romanticised version of Groundhog Day, except it is never the same day, or the same life, and instead shares prominent similarities that keep these characters consistently the same in terms of ambition.