The Book of Consequences

About the Book

Mektoub, they say in Arabic. It is written. Whatever you think, whatever you say, whatever you do, it has a consequence. And although we may not be aware of them, perhaps there is someone witnessing the whole thing. Not just witnessing but taking note to be entered into the Book of Consequences, the record of everything that has ever taken place. To be a witness, according to some philosophies, you have to have transcended the seemingly endless go-round of life and death. Stepping off that treadmill, it is said, you can sit back and watch others still journeying on. In a state of detachment, you assume the role of recording what is significant. Lives begin. Souls take on bodies yet again and try to fulfill their soul’s intentions yet again. Some make it, some do not. It is all written. In different parts of the world, each seemingly disconnected, individuals play out their lives. A writer in New Zealand and his homeless muse, a widow in Adelaide, a fingerless guitarist, two American academics, a Spanish saint, a gifted child in Amsterdam, an elderly Lebanese shoemaker, an Australian jihadist, and a drifting orphan who learns to hate the French. What do they all have in common? Nothing, it seems, except for the one who watches them all and annotates what is worth recording. And yet there is something more—something that not even the notetaker can foresee. Everything has consequences. As they say, it is written.

About the Author

Born and acculturated in Australia, Alastair Sharp spent most of his writing career in the media of television and the theatre, with the majority of work being for young readers and young actors. Having now moved across the world into a very different acculturation, living in Bordeaux, France, he now finds that his writing has turned in a novel direction. The dominant theme of this new period is the spiritual pursuit in all its endless forms. What drives us to seek that by which all things can be known is of deep fascination. While it is his own quest, it also provides a rich vein of exploration. The paths to higher knowledge are as varied as the individuals who follow them. It has been his experience that as each of his now six novels has emerged, the characters begin to reveal themselves, as if they already exist on some other realm of consciousness and have been waiting for the right opportunity to manifest. They have become great companions on the spiritual path.