There is a theory that suggests the more you try to understand the universe and its secret goings on, the more it develops alternative realities designed to confuse you.

In Japan, probability analyst Kaito Hasegawa loses his wife and his job, but finds a deep connection with a spirited ballerina. In England, concert violinist Sarah Hardcastle wanders through the dreams of her comatose grandfather. Prompted by an unlikely use-by date on a package of 250-million-year-old salt and a promise to return a sacred object to a distant temple, Kaito and Sarah embark on separate pilgrimages to the Himalaya. When they meet, their lives become entwined in ways neither of them could predict, resulting in a journey that goes far beyond the reaches of their imaginations.

Michael Goodsell’s second novel Use-By traverses the fascinating terrains of time, space, chance, fate, music, mountains, and the intricacies of human relationships. Add in an adventurous galactic geo-anthropologist and his perpetually prudent computer, and you have a delightful novel that is both philosophical and entertaining.