The Starless Sea | Erin Morgenstern

"Not all stories speak to all listeners, but all listeners can find a story that does, somewhere, sometime. In one form or another."

    The Starless Sea is an oasis, a haven for "those who feel homesick for a place they've never been to". Our story begins once, a very long time ago, when Time fell in love with Fate. The stars were worried about how this would impact everyone if, by chance, one of them was to get a broken heart. So, they conspired with the Owl Counsel and decided to separate them, by ripping Fate apart, quite literally. Everything of Fate was destroyed, save for the heart, which a mouse saved. But "Fate builds itself up again and Time is always waiting." This sad tale of romantic woe is just one of the stories we get to read, but it is the central one, the driving force; everything else is a version of it or works in service of it.

    Zachary Ezra Rawlins, the son of a fortune-teller, twenty-four, is a game design master's student and loves to read. He finds himself at the university library with regularity and, though not overtly social, he still loves spending time with Kat, a fellow student who pulls him out of his shell. One day he pulls out "Sweet Sorrows" from the library shelf, a book that isn't in the system, has no information on the author or the year it was published but he finds it intriguing. And thus his adventure begins. 

    Truthfully, the whole thing began when he was 11, standing in front of a mural of a door. Yes, just like that story of that boy in "Sweet Sorrows". Zachary is stunned and in disbelief that a story about him is in an authorless book he just checked out from the library. Or it may have begun even further back than that. But "a boy at the beginning of the story has no way of knowing that the story has begun." The what-if start haunting Zachary, the feeling of missing out on an opportunity of a lifetime is like an acute pain in his entire being. Because behind that door was an entryway into a magical underground world filled with all the stories ever. 

    Determined to find out more about the origins of the book, Zachary goes to New York, where he meets a woman and a man at a literary charity ball. The story spins out of control, the narrative can barely contain everything that's happening and you feel as if you're holding pages that are full to bursting with stories, just waiting to get them out to you. As Zachary's adventuring progresses, we get more stories, more books, more characters... Everything is connected, but you just have to look closer, pay attention. The book itself points this out to the reader: "If you provide enough to see hopefully they can piece it together for themselves." So, yes you, dear reader: pay attention, it will all make sense.

    This book doesn't follow a straight narrative. We jump from character to character, from story to story, from time to time... It's a labyrinth, or a puzzle you are given all the pieces to, you just have to stand back and see the bigger picture. I absolutely loved getting lost in the prose, the author's words pulling me into this make-believe world I wish were real. It's a feast for the senses and I am absolutely certain that anyone who loves reading and does it so completely that the books become part of their being and they cannot get back into the "real world" right after finishing it - well, they'd love this. 

    Reading along, the stories are given textures, smells, tastes. Everything feels so real and tangible. And since the stories are so well realized, so are that characters. Each one is fleshed out - some are more mysterious than others but I could picture each one and I knew what they wanted, what they craved. At times you are told a story about a character you have met without realizing right away that it's that same person. Threads of the narrative start to weave a story but it constantly escapes you, there's only a lingering feeling of knowledge that everything is linked - the names and phrases taste familiar in your mouth - yet the overall story remains elusive and out of reach practically till the end. I felt like I was playing a game, as well as reading, which is appropriate since the main character, Zachary, makes video games.

    This is a book about books, about reading and readers. It's a series of stories within a story about stories. It is technically a fiction adventure but it reads like a meditation on reading, on the importance of books and the stories they contain within. The driving narrative is there, pulling the story along, but I found it less important than the overall message of simple, honest appreciation of written word, of endless possibilities. The book acknowledges that everything is a story and everyone has a story. The life we live is, after all, a story too.

"We are all stardust and stories."

    I feel like I am simply not in possession of words that can adequately describe my affection for this book. It has transported me into its pages, into a world that felt so real as I was reading that I feel bereft of it now, wishing I could somehow see a door painted somewhere, turn the lock and step into this magical portal where all the stories are, where there's so much knowledge, so much imagination. Where there are comfortable rooms, reading nooks, armchairs, the scent of paper and an atmosphere of calm and studiousness. 

    Honestly, I wish I could have come up with something like this, though the enormity of it baffles me still. Morgenstern has such vivid imagination that everything she describes is so fantastic, yet her words make it seem so real. The sheer scope of the world she's created is dizzying but I feel the need to thank her for she has given us plenty of space to go lose ourselves in when our lives seem bleak, a lot of corridors to wander down when we feel restless and cozy corners to just sit in and drink tea when we feel sad. The Harbor on the Starless Sea will always be there, welcoming storytellers, storylovers and storykeepers alike.