An interesting mash up of genres–much of this book is the literary tale of two friends in the Netherlands, one an astronomer and one the scion of a leading political family who both fall for the same woman. But early on we learn that their meeting was engineered by angels in order to produce and raise a boy with a specific mission adding fantastical background and thread to the tale. In the end it becomes a thriller as the young man reaches adulthood and with the help of his father, undertakes his mission to steal an artifact from the Vatican.
This is fairly long book is fortunately very entertaining, filled with philosophy, humor and a bit of pathos.
by econoquist