In Meet Me in Another Life, the debut novel from Catriona Silvey, Santi and Thora start out as complete strangers, crossing paths in a foreign city where their fates mysteriously intertwine while they are looking up at the stars. Throughout this novel, the two live numerous lives, always with the same name and always reuniting in Cologne, Germany. However, despite constantly meeting one another their lives are never quite the same. As they meet, whether it be as lovers, as a teacher and a student, enemies, colleagues, or even siblings.
Catriona Silvey (Photo by Jean-Luc Benazet).
Over time the common thread that ties the two together appears to be the recognition of each other as kindred spirits with similar souls who leave a mark on each other within the chapter of each life they live. The two share philosophies about family, about love, and about life in a way that bonds them on many levels. Ultimately, they both seek an escape from the lives they are living and both always seem to be looking towards the stars.
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.
Blurred memories and patterns compound and both characters come to the revelation that they have known each other from a previous life. Memories begin to weave in and out of their consciousness, and common traits from their previous lives are brought into the present, whether it be a scarf knitted by Thora’s father or the blue of her dyed hair.
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.
This novel raises so many questions. How did they stop the clock? Why do they constantly need to meet? What do they teach each other in each of their individual lives?
The answers they lead to orbit around the constant desire, where both Santi and Thora are always longing to live an exceptional life, or at least one that is different from the current life they are living – and isn’t that just the most universal concept of all?
—Meet Me in Another Life by Catriona Silvey (HarperCollins Australia) is out now.
Meet Me in Another Life
Thora and Santi have met before…
Under the clocktower in central Cologne, with nothing but the stars above and their futures ahead. They don’t know it yet, but they’ll meet again: in numerous lives they will become friends, colleagues, lovers, enemies – meeting over and over for the first time, every time; each coming to know every version of the other.
Only they can make sure it’s not for the last time...
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