Amor Fati

Fate takes the wheel: "Hello, I am Fate. Yes, I speak. I am an inevitable force in your lives. I have been accused of apathy, perceived as a specter of malevolence when life takes irrational turns. I assure you, I am on your side and I am not destructive" The novel is set in the Philippines, USA and Europe. Five strong women from five generations are pivotal forces in these stories, stitched together over one hundred years, from 1909 to 2009. Various characters narrate snippets from their lives: some are moving, some tragic, and others, life-changing. These narrations confront universal issues on family, love, marriage, adulthood, parenting, war and survival reflecting Filipino culture and tradition. From these narrations, one discovers the omniscient work and power of Fate. Soledad Lopez Perez discovers Fate: "I have been leashed back to where my life started. It makes complete sense - a beginning must reach an end to complete the circle of my life. It is just so" Fate interjects: "It is true: one's life is a part of a bigger picture, a blueprint, where patterns of many lives are arranged into a grand picture. As in a kaleidoscope, as soon as one turns a chapter of one's life, orderly patterns with similar interlocking parts contort to fit into another well planned design" Listen to Lilly Perez Hightower's admonition: "One thing we don't learn from these books: to sensitively wend through confusing layers of life without getting lost . . . By trial and error. Before you make a decision, stop long enough to sniff, look, listen and feel. Wait for an answer. It is always hanging about, you know, somewhere in air, just a pluck away from you" By recognizing, then following one's Fate, puzzling questions, intricacies and mysteries in the readers' lives might be explained. Hopefully, revelations will cause one to be a more tolerant and less defiant citizen of the world. To accept one's Fate happily, to reach a state o