"Death happens not to the ones who have gone, but to the ones who remain."
This may very well be one of the most beautifully written books I've ever read in my entire life. The beautiful writing matches the cover. It's such a different story than what I'm used to reading, and I knew even from the first page, that I would love it. It isn't your usual story, it's much deeper.
The book tells the story of loss and grief, of life and death, and a woman with a mare who has to understand what it all means. Since I went in to this, exepecting nothing, I was gladly surprised, and I think that might be the best way to go into this book. The writing is beautifully poetic, filled with metaphors and imagies that stick with you for a long time afterwards.
Everything about this story is so magnificent and utterly astonishing I can hardly fathom it. Everything from the moment the woman loses her husband and child in a fire, to the discovering of how pain and sorrow truly affects you. What is the meaning of life, and what is the meaning of death? And I can say, that after reading this book, I've come a little closer to the answer. This story mixes magic with reality, and it just FITS. The most beautiful moment was when the woman got to see the most important moment in her life, and that was performing a kindess by helping a little bird, that she doesn't even remember doing. And still, for that bird, it changed everything.
"Sing me a love song," he says again, leaning down to nuzzle her, his head near that of his child's, and the woman has to laugh, because love songs are all that she knows.
What I found really interesting is the take this story has on death. It says that death happens because you need to move on from life, as it has nothing left to teach you. Exactly like when you move on from kindergarten to enter the first grade. One may not want to leave kindergarten, as one may not want to leave life, but if there is nothing left to learn, you need to move on. This all just seems so beautiful in a way, and actually makes sense.
My favourite paragraph is the one about how life on earth was created, from tiny organisms, to dinosaurs, to humans. The most haunting phrase, for some reason, is this, and it just contains everything about humans and our way of thinking.
Humans look deep into the eyes of apes and call them animals.