Constellation: A Novel Based on True Events

by Adrien Bosc

When you love, you come back. A life of breaking the compass, opening up to the cardinal points, and then, at the far end of the world, discovering the commonplace. When you love, you come back. A life of playing hide-and-seek, cheating boredom, cheating death, and, at the far threshold, the old cabin, the origin, the treasure. When you love, you come back. Reviled, despairing, in a jumble, the mind gaudy with strange animals and utopian landscapes, to discover in the depths of the primeval forest a patient, protective sister soul. When you love, you come back. A life that leaves you breathless, Russia, eastern China, Panamanian uncles, the Amazon, whales off Tierra del Fuego, Amsterdam, Antwerp, the horizon declining at the equator, war and ships, a whole life under the sign of departure. Of arrival, an unexpected, a banal arrival, from right next door, and the Odyssey as a great detour. When you love, you come back.