The stunningly poignant and life-affirming debut novel by A.J. Compton
Imagine if we could see how long everyone around us had left to live. But we weren’t allowed to know our own numbers…
Trying to make sense of life after the death of her beloved father, free spirit Matilda Evans meets Tristan Isaacs and discovers a marrow-deep connection with him.
No stranger to grief himself, lonely artist Tristan is in awe of Matilda’s fun and philosophical approach to life. With every second spent in her presence, he finds his views on life and loss changing, and begins to embrace the beauty of being alive.
As their friendship turns into something deeper, lessons are learned, memories are made, and legacies are created.
But with both of them knowing how long their soulmate has left in this lifetime, important questions have to be asked and tough decisions have to be made before time runs out.
The Counting-Downers is an inspiring story about life, loss, love, and making the most of every moment.
But I’m still breathing. If nothing else, the fact I’m still breathing, is a triumph.
For a while, it was all I was sure of. For a while, it was all anyone could ask of me.
But with painstaking slowness, they were able to ask more of me, and I was able to ask more of myself than just getting out of bed to face a world without my father in it.
As night became day, spring became summer, and nineteen became twenty, I began to smile, to laugh, to dream, to dance, to strive, to live.
Truly. Deeply. Freely.
And not just because I thought I should, but because I wanted to. For me.
Freedom came in realizing that I will never ‘move on’ from my father because I take him with me wherever I go. I was only able to move forward once I let go of my fear of leaving him behind.
So that’s what I’m doing as I walk barefoot along our favorite beach toward his bench, watching as the crimson sun melts into the sea. I stand and look on in awe at the surreal splendor of this world of ours.
The sight before me is an artist’s dream. I raise my vintage Olympus OM 10 camera from around my neck and do my best to capture the vivid sunset, aware that it’s a pointless pursuit.
The best sights in life are hard to capture – with a pen, a camera, or a mind. They are otherworldly gifts, too beautiful to belong to us for more than a brief glance, too fragile to be contained and kept safe for rainy days. If only we could bottle the magic of soulful sunsets, or grasp the infinite expanse of panoramic views in our hands. Instead, they slip through our senses and memories like sand and sea through fingers.
Yet still we try like children chasing butterflies to hold the intangible beauty in our hands, to keep it captive and treasured in our possession forever. A memory is never as good as a moment. Any photograph I take of this sunset, like my memory of it, will one day deteriorate, having never been as good as the real thing in the first place. The vibrant, effervescent, colors will fade to pastels and white, the crisp edges curled at the corners of my mind.
A.J. Compton is a 23-year-old Londoner, professional dreamer, and full-time over-thinker. She is the author of TheCounting-Downers and a dozen other unfinished manuscripts which will hopefully see the light of day soon.
A University of Cambridge graduate, A.J. is currently in a polygamous relationship with an embarrassing number of fictional book boyfriends.
Those two facts are not related. Honestly.
She loves people-watching and exploring her observations in her writing.
She really hates writing about herself in the third person.
No comments:
Post a Comment