Junior is born hearing the gods, who confide in him about the past and the future, including that the world will be hit by an asteroid when he is 36 and humanity will be annihilated. A reminder to “BE DARING” and write whatever you want, Currie’s novel is an inventive, heartfelt, perfectly pitched narrative about why even in the face of death (even the death of everyone and everything), life matters. Told in a braid of different perspectives (several first-person accounts by characters plus sections written in the rare second-person point of view) the novel avoids schmaltz and sentimentality through Currie’s brilliant manipulation of tone and avoids stagnation through his rapid-fire plot and time leaps. Buy the book.