Goodness, that was so good. I was stressed with everything else when I encountered this book. Perhaps, this book and I were meant to meet on my downtime (when I was in Zambales, and when I was so lucky to go home earlier than expected).

The story line is a slow-burn, with all the characters introspecting about their lives, their philosophical pursuits, and the little mundane things like traffic and the art of commute. It was a roller-coaster of plot lines and emotions, and all those little tangents and meet-ups being seen, one way or the other. The book is immersive, that even when your (as a reader on a bus or inside the coffee shop) surroundings are filled with noise, you can hear the sighs as you read along. You can even feel the panic attacks, the adrenaline rush and those high-alerted decision points in the novel.

These same sentiments is what I've seen in most of my personal favorites --- Ruth Ozeki's A Tale for the Time Being, Khaled Hosseini's A Thousand Splendid Suns, Emily St. John Mandel's Station Eleven, and Nicole Krauss' A History of Love. If you guys have read these novels I mentioned, be prepared for the same trance of engrossed reading.

Happy reading, guys!