Variable Stars

Christina Koning

Travel back to the Age of Enlightenment and meet three astronomers. Austen-like language, intricate social customs and realistic domestic details make you feel like an eye-witness. But the quest for love, meaning and fulfilment transform this story into a universal and hugely moving novel.

Extract

As he lies there, it seems to him that his whole life revolves in front of him, with the stars. There is his childhood, very pale and distant, a mere speck in that vast blackness; and there (only a little brighter) the moment of his fame. How brief is a man's life, compared to the immensity which lies before him! It is like a comet, flashing across the sky, and gone in an instant. Although even the stars are not eternal. Are they, too, not subject to change? Variable bodies, dimming and brightening in time...

Parallels