The Enigma of Room 622

by Joël Dicker

“Picasso was eating in a restaurant. At the end of the meal, the owner said to him, ‘Master, dinner is on the house.’ Picasso, appreciating the gesture, grabbed a pen and made a small drawing on the paper tablecloth. But he didn’t sign it. The owner then asked, ‘Master, could you sign it for me?’ Picasso replied, ‘You offered me a dinner, not your restaurant.’”

Life is a novel whose conclusion we already know: in the end, the hero dies. The most important thing is not how our story ends, but how we fill the pages. For life, like a novel, must be an adventure. And adventures are life’s vacations.