The Comet Seekers: A Novel

By Helen Sedgwick

A timeless love story and a magical, intoxicating debut for readers of The Miniaturist and The Time Traveler's Wife.

From a remote research base in Antarctica to witch burnings in Bayeux, The Comet Seekers is a romantic, mesmerizing love story about two strangers who find themselves connected by the passing of the great comets overhead and haunted by the ancestors who bind them together.

Roisin and François are strangers—or so they think—when they meet on the frozen ice sheets of Antarctica as Comet Giacobini fractures overhead. Both are compelled to explore the world but to do so both have left family behind. As we loop back through their lives, glimpsing each of them only when a comet is visible in the skies above, we see how their paths cross as they come closer and closer to this moment.

As the story moves back through the centuries to reveal the lives of their ancestors—from an accused witch to a young woman desperately embroidering Halley’s Comet onto the Bayeux Tapestry—it shows how strangers can be connected and ghosts can be real, and how the way we choose to see the world can be as tragic or as beautiful as the comets themselves.

• Language: English
• Publisher: HarperCollins
• Release date: Oct 11, 2016
• ISBN: 9781443449571

Helen Sedgwick

Helen Sedgwick is a writer, editor, and physicist, who grew up in London and now lives in the Scottish highlands. Helen was the managing director of Cargo Publishing from 2014 to 2015, and she founded Wildland Literary Editors in 2012. The same year she won a Scottish Book Trust New Writers Award and since then her writing has been published internationally and broadcast on BBC Radio 4. She was awarded a distinction from the MLitt in Creative Writing at Glasgow University in 2008. Before that, she worked as a research physicist, earning a PhD in Physics from Edinburgh University. She lives near the Dornoch Firth with her partner, photographer Michael Gallacher.

Reviews for The Comet Seekers

[auntmarge64 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Two people meet in Antarctica and are drawn to each other, recognizing the other's struggle with loss. Róisín is a few years older, a scientist, comet fanatic, and world traveler. François is the cook on the base, long a resident of Bayeux, France, which his mother Severine would never leave, even for vacations. She has finally gotten him to agree to travel himself, and since he's always been intrigued by Antarctica, he takes this last-minute job. Cooking is his passion. Severine's passion, on the other hand, is periodic visits from all the ghosts in her family, with whom she has a more real relationship than with François. He has never believed her about the ghosts, though, and when they appear (whenever a comet is visible in the sky), he is alternately furious, hurt and embarrassed by her attention to them. To the reader, as to Severine, the ghosts are quite real and distinct.The story goes back and forth between comet appearances. Severine isn't the first in her family to have visits from the dead. The earliest of the ghosts is Ælfgyva, shown in the Bayeux Tapestry being attacked by a cleric. In this story she has embroidered this scene, as well as that of the comet of that time, on the tapestry. There is also a ghost from the 16th c or so who cannot get past her anger at being burned alive and her son taken from her, because she doesn't know what happened to him and whether she has descendants. Róisín and François slowly get to know each other, listening to each other's stories and wondering what they can do to help each other. François can't help thinking he's seen Róisín before, several times (he has). How their families' stories intertwine becomes clear toward the end.I loved this book. It's not a ghost story in any kind of scary way, except for Severine, in front of whom the burnt ghost occasionally bursts into flames. Some reviewers found the format confusing, but I thought the comet sightings, and the characters who carry through the centuries, were perfect.

[arkrayder · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

This is one of those books that is really well written and has beautiful descriptions. But I found some of the relationships between characters bizarre and this just threw me out of the narrative. Events all center around comets and the lives of the people are connected to them. Great idea. Just wish the characters had been better.

[cburnett5 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

3.5 starsThe Comet Seekers is beautifully written. I was so excited to read it based on the summary and other reviews I had read. Somehow, I just did not totally connect with the story. There are SO many characters that I found it hard to keep up with them all. I also just did not love the story line. Sedgwick’s prose is lyrical, and I truly enjoyed reading her writing so after several days of thinking about the book after I finished it, I decided to give it 3.5 stars. Her descriptions of Antarctica are very descriptive, and I felt like I was being transported there. She conveys the isolation, the darkness, and the ice and cold phenomenally well. That was my favorite part of the book by far (and the cover which is spectacular). Thanks to BookBrowse for the chance to read this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

[marysneedle · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

I really like how the author unfolded the story. At first it seemed hard to follow but by the end of the story it seemed like it came full circle. I really like how the author wove fact and superstition as well as developed the history and relationships between the characters.

[wagner5sarah35 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

The nonlinear nature of this book made the story hard for me to follow. Jumping from century to century, this book traces a family of comet watchers and follows them as they tackle their own past. An interesting concept, but it didn't pull me in and the nonlinear didn't help.

[laurochka-1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

I loved this book! Starting and finishing in Antarctica the story follows the lives of the two main characters, using snapshots throughout history, from when comets were visible from earth. It's a story of families, ghosts, love and dreams. Charming!