Publisher: The Fiction Studio
Release Date: April 24th 2012
My Rating: 4 cups
Blurb (from Goodreads):
This evocative, moving, and gorgeously detailed novel is the story of Alex Soberano, a contemporary man in crisis. A tremendously successful New York businessman, Alex finds it difficult to embrace joy and accept love. When his life threatens to boil over, he escapes for a brief respite on the West Coast. What waits for him there is something he never could have imagined.
Intertwined with Alex’s story are the stories of three people from different times and places whose lives affect him in surprising ways:
• A woman from the South American city of Anhelo in 1928 that everyone knows as "Vidente." For decades, Vidente, has been one of Anhelo's most celebrated citizens because she has the ability to read colors that speak of a person's fate. However, during one such reading, she sees her own future – a future that includes her imminent death.• A man named Khaled who left his home in Bethlehem in 1920 to seek fortune in the South American town of Joya de la Costa. He has barely begun to gain a foothold when he learns that the wife and three children he left behind have been murdered. When a magical woman enters his life, he believes that destiny has smiled on him. However, destiny has only just begun to deal with Khaled.• A nineteen-year-old student named Dro who flies from the South American country of Legado to Boston in 1985 and immediately walks onto the campus of MIT expecting instant admission. Dro's skills at mastering complex, ever-changing differential equations intrigues the associate admissions director. However, the person he intrigues the most is the celebrated US ambassador from his country, and his relationship with her will define his life.
How the stories of these four people merge is the central mystery of this arresting work of imagination. Differential Equations is a story that will sweep you up in its magic, enrich you with its wisdom, and compel you with its deep humanity.
This book managed to surprise me in a lot of ways. In a good way. You have four people, four plots, for very different perspectives and no idea how or why they're connected.
Though there are four different plots, I didn't get confused about who was doing what and with whom and why. You know how it happens sometimes, that you get more than one plot and it's not very clear when the story changes and when the perspective shifts and you are left wondering "What the hell am I reading?". I didn't feel that with Differential Equations. And I didn't feel that the stories where lacking some details, or that they were thin. Even though you get four stories, they are so well written and so full of details, I felt like I was reading four books at the same time.
There are a lot of surprises. Each and every time I managed to think of a way these four people were connected, the following chapter would always prove me wrong. I think that's the one thing I loved most about this book, the fact that I wasn't able to foresee anything. There might have been little things that made sense to happen in a certain way, but the important things were a mystery to me until the very end of the book.
There were several scenes that made me very sad in this book. I guess they were a sort of lesson for the main characters, but I still felt incredibly sad for them. That's another amazing thing about this book, the fact that I felt so connected with the characters. And it was one of those books where you can't stop reading.
It was an amazing read and I think you should give it a try.
