FROM AMAZON: A magical, intoxicating debut novel, both intimate and epic, that intertwines the past, present, and future of two lovers bound by the passing of great comets overhead and a coterie of remarkable ancestors.

Róisín and François are immediately drawn to each other when they meet at a remote research base on the frozen ice sheets of Antarctica. At first glance the pair could not be more different. Older by a few years, Róisín, a daughter of Ireland and a peripatetic astronomer, joins the science team to observe the fracturing of a comet overhead. François, the base's chef, has just left his birthplace in Bayeux, France, for only the second time in his life. Yet devastating tragedy and the longing for a fresh start, which they share, as well as an indelible but unknown bond that stretches back centuries, connect them to each other.

Helen Sedgwick carefully unfolds their surprisingly intertwined paths, moving forward and back through time to reveal how these lovers' destinies have long been tied to each other by the skies - the arrival of comets great and small. In telling Róisín and François' story, Sedgwick illuminates the lives of their ancestors, showing how strangers can be connected and ghosts can be real, and how the way we choose to see the world can be as desolate or as beautiful as the comets themselves.

A mesmerizing, skillfully crafted, and emotionally perceptive novel that explores the choices we make, the connections we miss, and the ties that inextricably join our fates, The Comet Seekers reflects how the shifting cosmos unite us all through life, beyond death, and across the whole of time. ( )

As the story opens, Róisín, an astronomer, and François, a chef, meet at a scientific base in Antarctica. The goal of the Antarctic project is to study comets. The narrative is episodic, coinciding appearances of various comets between the years 1066 and 2017. The episodes loop through history, forward and backward, across hundreds of years to provide these two protagonists’ backstories.

We meet Liam, Róisín’s cousin and first love, in Ireland, and Severine, François’s mother, in France. Liam is emotionally bound to his family’s farm. Severine sees ghosts and is afraid to leave them. The ghosts arrive with the comets and the looping stories provide flashbacks to fragments of their lives. Róisín and François have each been through turmoil and grief. Their separate paths eventually merge in Antarctica.

I do not usually enjoy ghost stories, and never felt immersed in this one. The writing is beautiful, but the narrative is disjointed. Just as one story starts to gel, it abruptly shifts to another in a different country, even within the same chapter. One of the primary themes is the interconnectedness of humankind. I liked the theme and the concept but found the execution lacking.
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I wanted this to be more historical fiction and less literary fiction. I chose poorly, as that is not what the book is. Not my cup of tea, so I did not read much of it, but the part I read was well written, atmospheric, and wonderfully evocative of place.

advanced reader's copy provided by edelweiss.

Delightful 2nd half. Delightful ( )

This is one of those books that is really well written and has beautiful descriptions. But I found some of the relationships between characters bizarre and this just threw me out of the narrative. Events all center around comets and the lives of the people are connected to them. Great idea. Just wish the characters had been better. ( )