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They walked in silence through the cemetery much like they had floated through life since Sarah’s death: hand-in-hand, trying to find their way through it all.
Absolom. It’s a machine that sends the world’s worst convicted criminals back in time. Serial killers. Terrorists. Genocidal dictators. War criminals. They go into the Absolom chamber, and in a flash, they are gone from this world, sent back in time, hundreds of millions of years in the past, to the age of the dinosaurs. They’ll be alone for the rest of their life. They’ll die a terrible death. And do you know what the worst part of it is?” This time, Levy didn’t pause for dramatic effect. He pressed on. “The unknown. That’s Absolom’s true power. That’s why every person on Earth knows the
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the reason the entire system works is that they don’t arrive in our past. Absolom activation branches our timeline. It makes a copy and it sends the criminal back to an alternate universe. A copy of our universe, where nothing they do can impact our reality. That’s why it’s safe, isn’t it? Because they’re utterly and truly gone from this universe. That’s why the public accepts it.”
People with nothing to lose were the most dangerous thing in the world.
“Relativity proved that gravity and energy are essentially manifestations of the same thing. In particular, both distort the curvature of space-time. Our breakthrough is that we could use increasingly large amounts of energy to modify gravity and distort space-time, essentially causing a specific object to be displaced in space and time.”
If we used energy and gravity to displace an object in space, it was also displaced in time. It was sent into the past. But the worst part was the final realization: that the act of transporting something with Absolom essentially branched our universe—it created an alternate timeline where the payload was deposited. This is consistent with the many-worlds interpretation of quantum mechanics, which is the idea that we are constantly creating copies of our universe, even as we speak.”
“People who have never been sick think that the worst thing about losing your health is what it takes from you. Not being able to do what you want. To live the life you desire—to have the enjoyment taken from you. That’s not the worst of it. The worst part is seeing how the people around you change. Some leave you behind. The best lean in. And they treat you the same. They know you’ve changed, but they see the old you, and that’s what they remind you of. They treat you like the person you were before. They are your tether to your true self.”
Watching someone you love lose their health has an effect on a person. It teaches you lessons no human should ever have to learn. And could never forget.”
what a powerful source of strength a child in danger could be. Nothing gave a parent superpowers like knowing their child needed them and that no one else could help them.
one of the things extreme exhaustion took from you was emotional control. His mind was like the evening storm: raging and unpredictable. Anger wasn’t the only thing he felt. Helpless. That was the other feeling. Between the two, Sam preferred rage. That was something he could use.
That was the way of the world, he thought: you give it your all; sometimes it’s enough, sometimes it’s not, and sometimes, the tide carries you in.
knowing how to manage your money is an important life skill. Even if someone else is investing it, you should be able to read the statements and understand what they’re doing.
“The number one thing to know is that investing is, at its core, an exercise in predicting the future.”
When you buy a stock, bond, or other security, you’re making an educated guess about what’s going to happen, not just with the company or interest rates, but about what the future is going to look like. And you’re also making a guess about the market—whether it’s too optimistic about the future or too pessimistic. That is where fortunes are made and lost: in excess. In knowing when there’s exuberance or despair.
“Remember this: people matter. The history of capitalism is fundamentally about people. Great companies are built by great people. That’s the key to making market-beating returns—spotting those people.”
Was killing Nora and getting rid of her father just a means to an end—to ensure Absolom Two was built? That made sense to Adeline.
As he walked, he took stock of the plants he saw, as well as the nuts and seeds on the forest floor. He thought it better to wait on trying those. A plant’s reproductive material naturally evolves to harm any predators that might snack on them.
one never knew what they were made of until their back was against the wall.
that’s life. You push and pull and sometimes things catch fire and sometimes they don’t. You keep going: that’s the key.
Something new represented danger. Something to flee. Thanks to evolution, they were programmed to avoid uncertainty.
That was the key to survival—doing better tomorrow than you did today. Getting up every day and improving.
Everyone around her seemed to have secrets. Were those secrets the key to saving her father? Or were they simply part of the transition to adulthood—realizing that the world wasn’t what it seemed before, that everyone was hiding something, that every adult, on some level, wasn’t who they wanted children to think they were?
Whoever thought books didn’t save lives was so very wrong.
The past cannot be changed. It must not be changed. For all of our sakes.” “Why?” “The past is the causal sequence of events that created our present.”
modifying the past—is like crossing a temporal event horizon. What lies beyond is a temporal black hole from which nothing will return. Or ever exist. You. Cannot. Change the past.
“Dad isn’t in our timeline.” “Correct.” “We can change the timeline he’s in all we want, and nothing will happen to us.” “Correct.”
There was no single meaning of life—there was only the meaning of your life.
“I’m just trying to get back on my feet. Life has sort of thrown me for a loop.” Her mother formed that kind smile that had been the hallmark of her youth. “It happens. Life is about getting up. Not avoiding falling down.”
I’m glad you have a sense of what’s right for you—and are brave enough to go after it.” Adeline felt a pride rise inside of her she had never known. She had doubted before, but in that moment, she started to believe that maybe there was a larger force at work here, that this life gave and took and surprised, and that just maybe it all added up to something truly wonderful.
Like building a life, sewing was much more than knitting pieces together.
another thing about time and families then: if you live long enough, the role of who takes care of whom gets reversed.
Time and life had taught her one thing: you do all you can, and at some point, it’s either enough or it’s not. The tides of a life and your efforts either carry you in. Or sink you.
time had another magical quality: steeling the soul.
the advantage of time. It conditioned the heart to the worst assaults. Or maybe it was natural to feel less as one grew older. Maybe a mind could develop scar tissue too. Emotional scar tissue.
Hope was his anchor to this world.
Absolom Island was like the United States of America. A new version. Where America had been a melting pot of people from different places, attracting the best and the hungry and the outcasts from around the world, Absolom Island was a melting pot of people from different times, offering a refuge for people from across the past to build a better future. Absolom—the machine itself—was a physical manifestation of the march of humanity. It was a device that removed the worst members of human society and rescued the innocent.
sometimes life gives you problems you can’t solve today. That’s what tomorrow is for. And that’s why you keep going.”
