Under the Same Sky, But Different

“The sky was magnificent. I have always loved the sky and I do not take notice of it often enough.”

So writes one of the characters in Meet Me at the Museum by Anne Youngson. But it also aptly describes the past week I’ve spent in Colorado Springs. When not out hiking under brilliant blue skies, listening to cowboy songs under the stars, or exploring the neighborhood under threatening thunderstorms, I found myself dipping in and out of this epistolary novel.

Anders is a Danish curator. Tina is an English farmer’s wife. Tina writes to his museum to inquire after its famous artifact, the Tollund Man, that she remembers studying as a schoolgirl. Although their initial letters explore the history of this amazing find, they soon relate more mundane details of their daily life. The mundane turns profound as Anders reveals he is a widower and Tina shares she is unhappy in her marriage. Over the course of the novel, two strangers grow perilously intimate despite having never met in person. What begins as a curiosity leaves both their worlds irrevocably changed.