And Every Morning the Way Home Gets Longer and Longer

by Fredrik Backman

“The worst part about growing old is that I don’t get any ideas anymore.”

Numbers always lead people back.

“I miss you, my love.” “I’m still with you, darling difficult you.” “But only in my memories now. Only here.” “That doesn’t matter. This was always my favorite part of you.”

Mathematics will always lead you home.”

“When a star fades it takes a long time for us to realize, as long as it takes for the last of its light to reach Earth.”

“Our teacher made us write a story about what we want to be when we’re big,” Noah tells him. “What did you write?” “I wrote that I wanted to concentrate on being little first.”

No one had ever fought with him like she had. Their very first fight had been about the universe; he explained how it had been created and she refused to accept it. He raised his voice, she got angry, he couldn’t understand why, and she shouted, “I’m angry because you think everything happened by chance but there are billions of people on this planet and I found you so if you’re saying I could just as well have found someone else then I can’t bear your bloody mathematics!”

“We lived an extraordinarily ordinary life.” “An ordinarily extraordinary life.”

‘Ted, we’re not going into space because we’re afraid of aliens. We’re going because we’re scared we’re alone. It’s an awfully big universe to be alone in.’ ”