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Good food, good wine, and good conversation follow around a pair of college professors and their closest friends as they look for love and answers to the universe’s biggest questions. Seven years after graduating, Tom is well-adjusted to life at the University of Birmingham, while Will is settling into a calmer pace of life as a guest lecturer after time spent on the bleeding edge of nanotechnology. Enjoying the sights and experiences of Birmingham, Will makes plenty of friends—from Jacque, the free-spirit artist to the colorful and eccentric Dear, whose personality shines even through struggles. Musing over the nature of reality and the human condition over picnic lunches, gin bars, and one-of-a-kind art, their search for the truth takes many forms but always satisfies their mental appetites.
A simple slice-of-life tale unfolds in the lines of this story, with relatively minimal action and a focus on architectural details, capturing the hidden soul of each scene and location. The conversations toward the end of the book between the creative Jacque and the scientific Will infuse real scientific theory and discoveries into fictional conversations of where we all come from and what else there is left for us to do. This blurry distinction between crafted fiction and science lecture creates a very realistic portrayal of friends talking, sharing information, and helping to shape each other’s worldviews. With its accounts of partaking in food, alcohol, and urban escapes, this story feels like a vacation abroad with close friends, bonding and sharing each moment without letting them slip by unappreciated.