A Beijing taxi driver is stalked by someone who claims to have been his soul mate in five of his past lives during the last 1300 years. It’s an interesting premise for this novel, which has received rave reviews from critics around the world. This wildly ambitious rollick through key moments of China’s history has metaphysical undertones. In fact, it can be read as a response to Einstein’s famous observation that “The distinction between past, present, and future is only a stubbornly persistent illusion.” I found The Incarnations disturbing, provoking and irresistible. I can’t get it out of my mind.
Susan Barker, The Incarnations (New York: Touchstone/Simon & Schuster, Inc., 2015), 19.