The labyrinthine life

Meg Carpenter, newspaper columnist and struggling novelist on England’s southern coast, is broke, down on her luck and has a needy, whiny boyfriend. She’s looking for inspiration, a cosmic sign of some sort to jolt her into life change. Meg gets her jolt when a review book, The Science of Living Forever, pops up on her desk, forcing her to contemplate the “Omega Point,” a spot in time where the Earth will have acquired so much Energia that all its inhabitants will live forever. But what’s the point in a structured life if we all live forever, and what does her life mean if it’s true? Meg’s attempt to answer these questions will lead to a discovery of her identity that has always been hidden behind the pages of her “storyless story.” Funny, charming and full of metaphysical inquiries, Scarlett Thomas’ Our Tragic Universe is a novel for existential interrogation, rumination and transformation.