Plot Questions (spoilers)

[Samantha]

How did Sei's, Siguror's, and Vicky's stories tie into the narrator and Marianne Engel's story? I understand Francesco because they explained he was the son of the Italian fighter in the condotta. But how do the other three global love stories tie into the plot or tie into the other characters? How would Marianne Engel know their stories?

Also, was Sei the woman at the fair in the beginning who couldn't speak, wore religious robes, and wrote him the note about his scar? How was she there? Was she a ghost or reincarnated?

Finally, what was the deal with Marianne Engel? She woke up from the river to do her penance. After that, was she immortal in the same body, living until she gave away all her hearts? Or did she die after regular lifespans and keep getting reborn? If she was getting reincarnated, how could she keep those copies of Inferno across all those lifetimes and different bodies? How did she recognize the narrator as her soul mate in the hospital? He must have been reincarnated, as he actually died in the German medieval past life.

[Marlana]

This might sound weird, but I think that all of the couples were actually Marianne and the narrator. Marianne just outright describes both of them in their first lives in the 1300s, but after that the couple was embodied by the others.

Remember there is a remark he makes at the beginning of his hospital stay when he goes under for his pancreas surgery - but because he was a burn patient he had to undergo a different anesthetic. It gave him hallucinations, rather than really putting him under. During his hallucination, he imagined he was standing at a cliff with an English woman.

It also explains why present day Marianne actually had a childhood. She isn't physically 700 years old, but rather is aware of her several lives over 700 years. Her spirituality keeps her more in-tune with that through the ages, but him, not so much. In each life he's rather grounded in reality.

I could be wrong, but unless I missed something, there could be room to interpret that their two souls were embodied within each couple.