Stranger fictions

Who are you in your parallel life? A queen, a CEO, a swashbuckling pirate? This holiday season, let’s do some ‘space-time’ traveling and get ready to manifest our wildest dreams.

My ingredients for a fabulous festive season? Family fun, culinary delights, a house filled with over-thetop ornaments and a big stack of books. As the darkest day of the year draws near, there is a spellbinding stillness in the air that invites me to travel inside and explore magical worlds. And what better way to do that than curled up with a cozy blanket and a book, sipping some insanely delicious homemade hot chocolate? (I may have to share my recipe one day). “Books and doors are the same thing. You open them, and you go through into another world, » the marvelous writer Jeanette Winterson once said. I fully agree! When I read, I travel through space and time and do unimaginable things. Lead armies, attack ships, travel to Mars? Been there, done that, all from the comfort of my sofa.

Do you believe in parallel worlds? As a science nerd, I am currently obsessed with quantum physics, which studies the particles that make up matter and the forces with which they interact. With its mind-bending findings – particles that are in different locations at the same time etc. – it is definitely ‘stranger than fiction’ but has opened so many doors in my awareness! According to one idea known as ‘Many Worlds’, the universe continually splits into new branches, producing multiple versions of ourselves. Doesn’t this make you wonder how things would have worked out for you on a different timeline? What if you had taken that job? What if you had said yes to a date with that stranger? Sadly, according to my quantum crush, physicist Sean Carroll (told you I was a nerd!), your other selves can never interact, but that hasn’t stopped writers throughout the centuries from describing fabulous gateways to parallel universes, from ‘Alice in Wonderland’ to ‘The Golden Compass’. The most wonderful part? In the hands of open-minded readers, these books have become magical gateways themselves.

In ancient Europe, people believed that during the longest night of the year – aka the winter solstice – goddess Frigga sat at her spinning wheel weaving the fates. In a way, that’s exactly what I’m doing with my Holiday season reading: accessing my parallel lives and imagining my other selves doing things I can only dream of. In the stillness of the season – in Latin, solstice means ‘sun set still’ – I dream, so that in the new year, I can manifest my desires. I am weaving my fate. The godfather of quantum physics, Albert Einstein, once said: ‘Imagination is everything. It is the preview to life’s coming attractions.’ May your Christmas season be filled with amazing books and wild dreams. And don’t forget the hot chocolate!

Happy Holidays!

Holiday book tips

The golden compass

The first installation of Philip Pullman’s ‘His Dark Materials’ trilogy introduces us to a magical alternate world where every human has a ‘daemon’, a physical manifestation of their soul in animal form.

Something deeply hidden

Physicist Sean Carroll explores the mind-boggling idea of Many Worlds, while making you feel like you actually understand the fundamentals of quantum physics (for a moment).

Dead astronauts

Set in the far future, this visionary epic by Jeff Vandermeer follows a trio of astronauts through a moving story that jumps back and forth across time.