"The Universe vs Alex Woods" by Gavin Extence - Review

In the middle of the night in Dover, a boy arrives on the ferry and is arrested. He is 17 years old. 130 grams of marijuana and an urn are found in his car. This and the partial epileptic seizure he has during his arrest are apparently not helping him against the police. At the police station he tries to explain that strange situation, but the officers aren’t interested in the whole story – and thus, he tells it to the reader.

Alex Woods‘ story starts with him being hit by a meteor at age 10. He survives with an injury of his brain that makes him an epileptic. As if that isn’t enough already he is bullied by his classmates for his gigantic interest in astronomy and neurology and so, one day fleeing his bullies he ends up in Mr Petersons garden.

Mr Peterson is an American, Vietnam veteran and a passionate fan of Kurt Vonnegut. Actually, he prefers to stay on his own, but he and Alex become friends pretty quickly who learns to love Kurt Vonneguts books as well. Based on their reading they start discussing profound philosophic and especially moral topics. When Mr Peterson is diagnosed with an incurable nervous disease years later, Alex has to show that he actually learned something about those topics. 

Gavin Extences first novel „The Universe vs Alex Woods“ convinces with bittersweet humor, curiosity for the world and, of course, the unspoken and yet so urgent call to think about the moral questions asked in the book yourself. The characters are likeable and the book read quickly – how else, when you can’t put it down?