this is where it ends by marieke nijkamp

If you could save your one true love from an untimely death, would you be able to resist?

Science has not only made the leaps necessary to allow time travel, but the process engineered a strange side effect-predicting your one true love.

Years have passed since refugees from a ruined earth took to space, eventually settling a new system of planets. If you could learn the identity of your one true love-even though you will never meet- would you? Their masters still pull the strings, however, and this unforeseen occurrence forces them to intervene with dangerous consequences, leaving the lives of everyone from the performers to the patrons hanging in the balance. A deep, passionate, and magical love that makes the lights flicker and the room grow warm whenever they so much as brush hands. With no knowledge of how the game must end, they innocently tumble headfirst into love. The game is well under way and the lives of all those involved-the eccentric circus owner, the elusive contortionist, the mystical fortune-teller, and a pair of red-headed twins born backstage among them-are swept up in a wake of spells and charms.īut when Celia discovers that Marco is her adversary, they begin to think of the game not as a competition but as a wonderful collaboration. Unbeknownst to the players, this is a game in which only one can be left standing, and the circus is but the stage for a remarkable battle of imagination and will.Īs the circus travels around the world, the feats of magic gain fantastical new heights with every stop. Within these nocturnal black-and-white striped tents awaits an utterly unique, a feast for the senses, where one can get lost in a maze of clouds, meander through a lush garden made of ice, stare in wonderment as the tattooed contortionist folds herself into a small glass box, and become deliciously tipsy from the scents of caramel and cinnamon that waft through the air.īeyond the smoke and mirrors, however, a fierce competition is under way-a contest between two young illusionists, Celia and Marco, who have been trained since childhood to compete in a 'game' to which they have been irrevocably bound by their mercurial masters. It is simply there, when yesterday it was not. No announcements precede it, no paper notices plastered on lampposts and billboards.

This is where it ends by marieke nijkamp