The Swarm: A Novel

by Frank Schätzing

Ask a Christian why the wood is burning, and he’ll tell you that God is in the flames. He’ll refer you to the ancient stories, and there you’ll find a burning bush. But is that how a Christian would explain a forest fire?’ ‘No, of course not.’ ‘Exactly - and yet any true Christian treasures those stories. Indians believe in their ancient stories too, but not because they think they’re real. Our stories don’t describe how such-and-such a thing actually is. They describe the idea of it. In our stories you’ll find everything and nothing, because you can’t take anything literally, yet it all makes sense.’

People are losing their significance. Everyone’s replaceable. There are no ideals any more, and without ideals, there’s nothing to make us more important than we are.

Your life doesn’t stop unfolding because you take a longer route. No time is wasted.’

We live in an age of bacteria. For over three billion years they’ve existed in their present form. Humanity is just a passing fashion, but even when the sun explodes, somewhere, somehow, a few of those microbes are bound to survive. They’re the planet’s real success story, not humans.

We know we can’t exist beyond death, so we try to leave our legacy in manifestos, books and music. We’re intent on making sure our names aren’t forgotten. We try to leave a record of ourselves to be passed on, misinterpreted, falsified and used for ideological purposes long after we’re dead. We’re so

obsessed with assuring our own perpetuity that our goals seldom coincide with what would be good for humankind.