"Life is not a zero-sum game. It owes us nothing, and things just happen the way they do. Sometimes they're fair and everything makes sense; sometimes they're so unfair we question everything. I pulled the mask off the face of Fate, and all I found beneath it was chance."

Do people really have free will and if a different path had been taken would some elements still be the same – would something still survive, the immutable part?

Wells' novel is remarkably melancholic and conveys such power of sadness, loss and fate; the characters are multifariously drawn, human, uncoated whilst the narrative style is effortless and mature, it makes for a pure reading enjoyment. The atmosphere is very dense, very distinctive and always present; there is no page in this book, no statement that would be out of place or superfluous, the author has obviously taken a lot of time structuring both the plot and his characters.

This book explicitly talks about how important it is to live, to love, to trust, to fall on your face, to get up again, not to give up, but most of all, to be one's true self; to do what one wants, what one thinks is right, to never stop, to defy fear.

:Well, we come into the world and we're influenced by our environment, our parents, strokes of fate, education and random experiences. Then at some point we say, 'I am such-and-such', as if it's something that can be taken for granted, but we just mean the surface, the primary self."

Oh my gosh this one broke my heart a little bit. I flew through it - was surprised at some of the turns it took but overall really enjoyed it! I think it'll be an easy book club sell - orphaned boy meets girl at boarding school and we get to follow the turns of their lives. I liked Jules (the main boy) and LOVED his sister and her relationship with their friend Toni. Just the sort of solid, character driven story that I always enjoy. Thank you!