1. 00:15 19th Mar 2009

    Distant events have thrown us into long, comet-like orbits, far from our origins, but eventually we will circle back on people whose lives preceded and gave rise to our own. We may recognize them immediately. Or else we may meet a stranger for the first time, and while shaking his hand feel vividly that an ancient obligation has finally been kept.
    — Salvatore Scibona in The End, his debut novel and this year’s winner of the Young Lions Fiction Award. This passage sent chills up and down my spine. It may sound hokey but I truly believe that some of us are linked in ways we can’t even begin to imagine. I wonder about the mysterious ties that bind me to certain people; ties that make me certain that I’ve known and loved them for much longer than is logically possible.