From the very first sentence I was captured by the beauty of this book “Silence on a tropical island is the relentless sound of water. The waves, like the sound of your own breathing, never leave you”. And just like that, so subtly, without my even realising, I was taken on a journey exploring so much more. I went from reading beautifully composed descriptions of an island I’ve been longing to visit, to reading about life, longing, death and everything between and beyond. Throughout the book the author delivers profound messages that are delivered with the utmost nonchalance and detachment which made it so much more powerful. “For most of those who perished, the final image they carried was of a summer sky, an indifferent eyewitness. As indifferent to the movement of continents as it was to the sight of a fisherman’s corpse floating in the water, surrounded by butterflies.” What I really loved was how the book explored science, both, of those educated by textbooks and those educated by the planet itself. “Nature doesn’t adhere to the laws of science in the way scientists do.”

Some of my favourite quotes:

“The cracked few, not the meek, shall inherit the earth. It is faultlines, not rigid continents, guiding poles or mighty oceans that hold it all together.”

“The universe may have come to life with a bang, but the possibilities were conceived in silence.”

“That is art’s biggest tragedy. We can imagine god, god’s enemies, ideologies to fight over, but we can’t tell a single story of which we are not the centre. That is the root of all the world’s problems, my friend. But you cannot put yourself in someone else’s shoes until you remove your own.”

“The best stories are the ones that are still to come, Ghazala. Close enough to hear, smell and admire. Yet out of reach.”