Meet Me in Another Life: A Novel

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Thora meets Santi for the first time when they are eighteen. Strangers in a foreign city, they bond over their shared ambition to travel to the stars. Thora thinks she’s finally found a kindred spirit, a friend for life. Until, days later, Santi is cruelly snatched away from her. The beginning was very bizarre. And I honestly had no idea if I was reading contemporary or fantasy or what. In each chapter they meet each other no matter what time/dimension/universe they are in. Recommended by Popsugar • Bustle • Goodreads • Tor • Mashable • BookBub • io9 Gizmodo • Lambda Literary • BookRiot • CrimeReads • The Nerd Daily • and many more! the characters: in the first chapter, they may seem a little cliche, but even then there is a bit of depth to Thora & Santi. I loved how they changed & stayed the same, much as people do. I was fully invested in what happened to these characters. From early in the book, elements of the simulation intrude into the narrative (such as glitches in reality, and Peregrine the broken AI). How did you balance dropping in these clues with integrating them into Thora and Santi's (apparently real) lives?

In my head, during the period of their real lives when they lived in Cologne, Santi lived in the Belgian Quarter and Thora lived in Ehrenfeld. These are the neighbourhoods they most often find themselves living in during each of their simulated lives. So there is a sense in which those neighbourhoods suit the constant aspects of each of them, just as they suited their real-life selves. And the chapters where they don’t live in those neighbourhoods are when they’re most fundamentally lost or dislocated from themselves: Santi when he’s homeless and losing his grip on reality, Thora when she deliberately ‘tries on’ lives that don’t fit in an effort to escape the simulation’s endless cycle.Thora and Santi keep meeting each other in different lives. But romance is not the focus. In some worlds they become friends. In some they become colleagues. In the rare case they become lovers. And sometimes they are enemies. It also felt like the characters and their relationships to each other were really uneven. In some chapters the characters felt really captivating, their connection felt real, and you cared about what was happening to them, and in others they felt flat, forced, and none of it seemed to matter. Sometimes their connection felt strong, and other times it felt like we were being told they mattered to each other rather than being shown. It also felt like, a lot of times, the characters only had dimension and depth when they were the POV character and became one-dimensional when they weren't. Too often, they existed on the periphery of the other's story until they took center stage again, rather than feeling like complex characters independently throughout.

It is clear to us early on that there is a mystery to be solved. Why the recurring lives? Why the disparate ages, roles, and relationships? After a time, it becomes clear to Thora and Santi, too. They begin to realize that they have known each other and remember things from their former lives. Also, there are some consistencies, some places and characters that recur, unchanged. Recurring elements (Santi’s cat, a tattoo on Thora’s wrist) first gain meaning through repetition, and then become touchstones, triggering inferences for the reader about how the characters have changed and where they might be headed. Once Santi and Thora realize they are trapped in a loop, they (along with the reader) must piece together the clues scattered through the narrative to figure out what might really be going on. - from the LitHub articleThe notion that sparked the book is very down to earth. But these are two characters who are reaching for the stars, and Silvey’s solution was very fantasy/sci-fi-ish. …the question was: can two people ever know each other completely? That led me to the idea of characters who meet again and again in different versions of their lives…I think of the book as an argument: Thora and Santi have very different attitudes to their situation, and that leads them to respond to it in different ways. - from the Deborah Kalb interviewThere are obvious similarities to other works that deal in re-iteration. Kate Atkinson’s Life After Life (when Thora refers to herself as the Fox to Santi’s Wolf, is that a nod to that book?) uses the method in consideration of England in the first half or the 20th Century, and looking at the possible branches life might take were one to choose A instead of B, or B instead of C, giving the available choices a go until a desirable path forward is found. Thora, in particular, and Santi try this out, but it is not enough to solve the puzzle. Cloud Atlas is another novel offering common characters in diverse times (and places. This one is all in Cologne). Groundhog Day is the most famous cinematic rom-com loop and Andy Samberg’s Palm Springs gave it a similar go in 2020. 50 First Dates anyone? There is a clear romantic element in this one, too, as Thora and Santi are souls who are clearly meant to be together, (Yeah, I know, some might see them as merely tethered. But my take is that there is greater depth to their connection.) despite the fact that Thora is bisexual and has major hots for a woman, Jules, in many of the stories. Santi and Thora are a couple in others.Many moments or conversations early in the book come to have a different meaning once the reader knows the ending. Do you have a favourite one of these? As the book goes on it definitely seemed more like a novel. And it was interesting to see how the two characters acted. However, the explanation at the end was super weird and not very satisfying. Most obvious first: the European Astronaut Centre, where ESA astronauts do their basic training, is in Cologne. That’s why the simulation is set there – it’s a place Thora and Santi have really lived, so their memories can help fill out the gaps in the fake reality. Beyond that, the variety of jobs that Thora and Santi do from life to life alludes to the fact that astronauts have to sort of be everything: they’re engineers, medics, scientists, or they take on teaching/mentoring roles to support each other as the mission proceeds. The book was first published in April 2021 and immediately after it was announced that the rights have been optioned and that Gal Gadot was attached to star in a Meet Me In Another Life adaptation.

Once we hit part two things started to become clearer and I loved the way it was all heading. Santi and Thora tortured themselves and each other showing many different sides to them, I loved their imperfections and the ongoing debates. I often found myself siding with Santi but I think that is because I’m an optimist at heart. Thora and Santi are strangers in a foreign city when a chance encounter intertwines their fates. At once, they recognize in each other a kindred spirit—someone who shares their insatiable curiosity, who is longing for more in life than the cards they’ve been dealt. Only days later, though, a tragic accident cuts their story short. I wanted to read this book, because I love the idea of fate and I thought that this book would be an epic romance. But honestly this book was so different from what I was expecting. I have enjoyed how Silvey played with genre expectations. No, you're not reading fantasy. Yes, you're reading scifi. Meet Me in Another Life isn't a character study, it tells you about exploring, about understanding the world, and about what we owe to each other.It was a fascinating read- how much does fate play a part in uniting souls together? If we are from different lives, do we still find each other? I have often wondered things like this- would I have still met my fiance 7 years ago had we both not moved to Chester for different reasons and worked with our mutual friend? A beautiful idea, and executed with remarkable ease. But this is only one of the many connections they share. Like satellites trapped in orbit around each other, Thora and Santi will find each other again: as husband and wife; teacher and student; caretaker and patient; cynic and believer. In recurring lifetimes they become friends, partners, lovers, and enemies. When I had finished this book I sat and pondered my review for a few days. What could I possible say about this story that showed how much I loved it. The entire concept was unique, well developed and unlike anything I had ever read before. The first part of the story we see Thora and Santi in may different lives, being many different things to each other. As a reader I was confused about what was going on but in a good way. I felt like one of the characters in their story trying to fit together the puzzle pieces and nothing could explain what was happening.

But this is only one of the many connections they share. Like satellites trapped in orbit around each other, Thora and Santi are destined to meet again: as a teacher and prodigy student; a caretaker and dying patient; a cynic and a believer. In numerous lives they become friends, colleagues, lovers, and enemies.Science fiction can reach out to the stars and at the same time hold tight to the human heart. The many layers of mystery in this beautiful love story lead to a breathtaking ending." The story continues to show a myriad of different lives for Santi and Thora. In each life they encapsulate a different relationship e.g. teacher and student, father and daughter, brother and sister. It becomes apparent that their lives are never-ending, trapped in a cycle that can't be broken. When one dies, they reappear again in another life. However, despite continuing on in their new lives without worry, suddenly they begin to realise that something is not quite right and memories from previous lives begin to haunt them. Who are Santi and Thora? Why are they always with each other? Why can't they leave this place? This was a lot of fun! I love video game glitches – I grew up playing the Tomb Raider games, and one of my favourite things was to use the physics glitch near the door of Lara’s mansion to jump up onto the roof and swan-dive into her swimming pool. But dropping such a blatant glitch too near the beginning of the book would obviously give the game away! So instead, I started with the idea that if you lived inside a simulation, a bug would be indistinguishable from a miracle. Faced with an event that breaks the normal rules of reality, you effectively have two choices: either you decide something supernatural is going on, or you try and explain it away. And those possibilities map nicely onto Santi and Thora’s different ways of looking at the world. So really, I just focused on how each of them interprets the early glitches they encounter. That way, even when more outlandish things start happening, it all stays grounded in the reality of the characters.