This is the time when we look back at the past year and think about what we’ve done, where we’ve been, what we’ve learned and how far we’ve come (or maybe not come). I generally eschew these sort of end-of-the-year reflections, but these thoughts have been on my mind because the book I find myself reading as 2011 draws to a close is Evan Mandery’s latest novel Q.

Q is the story of an unnamed male protagonist, a writer/teacher, who is about to marry Quentina Elizabeth Deveril (the titular Q) a.k.a. the love of his life. But just before the wedding, our hero is visited by an old man who claims to be the future version of himself. The old man has indeed traveled back from the future and implores our hero not to marry Q because doing so will lead to dire and tragic consequences later in his life. Once our hero is convinced that his future self is really who he says he is and is serious, he heeds his advice and breaks off his engagement with Q.  Read more...