The Comet Seekers

Summary (from the publisher): One Day meets The Time Traveler's Wife in this spellbinding, magical debut novel about love, loss, hope and heartbreak that shows us that for each of us, the world can be as lonely or as beautiful as the comets that illuminate the skies above us.

Róisín and François first meet in the snowy white expanse of Antarctica. And everything changes.

While Róisín grew up in a tiny village in Ireland, ablaze with a passion for science and the skies and for all there is to discover about the world, François was raised by his beautiful young mother, who dreamt of new worlds but was unable to turn her back on her past.

As we loop back through their lives, glimpsing each of them only when a comet is visible in the skies above, we see how their paths cross as they come closer and closer to this moment.

Theirs are stories filled with love and hope and heartbreak, that show how strangers can be connected and ghosts can be real, and the world can be as lonely or as beautiful as the comets themselves.

 

Review: I received a copy of this book from HarperCollins.

 

Moving through time and space, this novel's chapters reveal its characters only when a comet is visible in the skies above. The narrative principally follows the characters Róisín and François, who meet in 2017 in Antarctica as part of a research expedition following spatial patterns. In subsequent chapters, the novel journeys back in time to reveal that Róisín grew up in a small town in Ireland and has always had a burning passion for science and space. Meanwhile, François was raised  in France by his single mother, whose past prevented her from following her dreams of travel. Other chapters reveal François's family history, going back as far as 1079 and exploring family ancestors that haunt his mother and distantly link him to Róisín. Slowly, the novel progresses through time and geography to show how the two wound up in in Antarctica together.

 

Ultimately, this novel centers on the tension between past and present and between the comfort of home and the adventure of travel and exploration. Additionally, while ostensibly focusing on individuals with a passion for science and astrology, it embodies the movements of the stars with a fated and predestined weight that transcends scientific explanation. This supernatural intertwined with scientific phenomenon is a strong presence throughout this novel, as François's mother Severine is haunted by ghosts of her ancestors, who appear most strongly when there is a comet in the sky.

 

Although intricate and full of rich thematic elements, this novel did not come together as successfully as its early promise indicated. The intricacy of the first half of the novel began to feel like a convoluted web leading nowhere by the second half. The connection between the two central characters was interesting but not profound and there was no indication that this grand, centuries old path that led to the two meeting would really lead to anything beyond this chance encounter. This was also a deeply melancholy novel, whose characters reveal that whether you make the decision to stay at home or to seek adventure, you're likely to end up with only some of the things you want and deeply regretful for some of the choices you may have made. Finally, although it was clever that each chapter coincided with the appearance of a comet, I found myself wondering what the true function of that was other than a neat narrative trick and another tie-in to Róisín's love of the stars.

 

Stars: 3