My biggest problem was that I wasn't bothered about Leo which sounds heartless but he didn't endear him self to me at all.  I enjoyed his Grandfather story and felt sorry for his Father and even enjoyed the quantum physics.  I think the problem with Leo is that we don't get chance to get to know him and Eleni before the accident.

I predicted pretty early on that Leo would be related or something to Moritz - I think it was given away when you found out his dad had been 'hiding' something from him...

 I too realised that there was some connection between Moritz and Leo early, I think it was the first time the dad came into it I figured it out and then looked at the surnames and saw how close they are.  

I'd have preferred it though if the siberian storyline had been told as if it were happening 'now' - everytime Moritz was in danger you knew he came through it so it wasn't as exciting.  I think it should have been told as now and then right at the end the dad say that he had to tell him something about his grandfather so that the two storylines came together.

But overall I enjoyed it and found it really easy to read, it didn't take me long at all.  

I loved the two parts of the story line and guessed about half to two thirds of the way through that Leo would be related. It didn't bother me that the tale was told as in the past, most books have a happy ending and the main character survives so I usually read on that basis! I did feel for Leo, perhaps not for him as a person, but for the guilt he must have felt for telling Eleni to sit near the front of the bus.

I can't wait to speak to my friend who knows the author to find out how autobiographical it was. I think she said his ex girlfriend (on whom he based Eleni) did die so I really want to know if she died this way. I will let you all know what I find out!

I enjoyed this book somewhat, but I must admit I was a bit disappointed, only because I found the character of Leo really irritating.  I know that sounds perhaps quite harsh, but I just couldn't help it.  I also thought the character of Roberto was a bit un-necessary.

I really liked the character of Moritz, and the dual storyline didn't bother me.  I guessed quite early on that they were related in some way, as Deakin sounded like an Anglicized version of Danieki.

I agree that it might have helped if we had known more about Leo and Eleni before the crash.  

Still all in all, it was an easy read, and although not a book I would urge everyone to read, I would certainly recommend it to a friend who had an interest in the genre.

Moritz's story was fascinating. I liked the descriptions of the conditions of war, his walk across Siberia and the  Communist revolution. I gathered his and Leo's stories were connected but they didn't need to be - I liked the idea of the two stories being random examples of heroic love.

I felt sorry for Leo but wasn't as moved by his story. I felt more for his dad than I did for him - I can't bear the thought of children being wrenched from their parents during WW2. I'm trying to work out if we're prevented from feeling more towards Leo because we don't get to know him and Eleni as a couple before her death. We see only a snapshot of Moritz and Lotte together before they're separated and yet I felt more for their plight. Probably because of the context in which their story is set and the hardships they endured. Can't make up my mind if I liked Leo or not.  He was irritating at times (esp during the bedsit scenes - a relief when he left).

I liked the pages from Leo's diary. The quotes are inspirational. I liked the science bit - especially the idea that we live in a holistic universe. I can understand that being relevant to Leo's thoughts. Roberto was pretty annoying, and I found Hannah annoying at first as well. Some of her dialogue was pretty naff and I wanted to get back to Moritz's story, (which on its own would've made an interesting novel). However that's a teeny tiny quibble.

I agree with most of what you have said.  I like the notebook idea that Roberto gave to Leo about carrying a notebook at all time to note down thoughts, quotes etc that you would like to remember.  I often see something or read something I would like to remember but forget to make a note of it.  I mean to get a small note book to carry but I would probably forget to use it.  

I liked the idea that as we are a carbon based life form. we are all made from stardust.   (but when I said this to Mr BF he said he was more likely to be coal – no imagination). In fact a lot of Roberto ideas were interesting but not sure if they are based on any real facts or not.  He may have been trying to comfort Leo and make him feel that Eleni was still around but in a different form but his attitude to living relationships was a bit ****.  

I thought the reason I didn’t like Leo was because we didn’t get to know him before the accident but as you said we didn’t get to know Mortz and Lotte either and yet I felt much more for them.  Perhaps it was because they were part of a much larger story in a period of history where all sorts of atrocities were committed against ordinary people over quite a lot of years.  (When I say that I don’t mean to imply that a single death either by accident or illness is any less painful to the family and friends of the people involved).

I know what you mean Gwen. I feel awful saying I didn't feel as much for Leo as I did Moritz. It often felt that Leo was a little too self-indulgent and I wanted him to get his act together and move on - that sounds bad; we all grieve in our own ways and it takes time to come to terms with loss.

Moritz, on the other hand, had no choice but to pull himself together in order to survive. I liked the scene where the man he met in the Siberian wilderness told him to enjoy the present and see the wonder in small things. I think you're right in saying we feel more towards him because he was part of an horrific time in the history of mankind where so many were made to suffer at the hands of fellow humans. It's hard to take in, especially as it happened not that long ago. (Something The Sixth Lamentation picked up on & got me thinking about: younger generations must read about the crimes committed towards humanity during the war to prevent them happening again. If they are forgotten about, who's to say they won't happen again?).

I like the idea we are all connected to everything and everyone in the universe. It makes me feel anything's possible in life (winning the lottery, yes please  ). Had to laugh at Mr B's coal comment  

I couldn't help but think that Roberto used his philosophies to get away with having his cake and eating it. Wasn't he full of himself?

Anyway enough of my ramblings.

I hope the author doesn't read this - but I felt that Leo was only really in the book so that he (the author) could explore his own thoughts on life and death. That wasn't really a bad thing as some interesting things where written but I think that the two parts to the book was  what stopped it from been really good book rather than just a good one.  The two stories seemed disconnected somehow in spite of the connection between them, if that makes sense.

Hmmm that's interesting. I did find Moritz's story the stronger of the two and it alone would make a good novel. But then we would've lost the interesting elements from Leo's story as you quite rightly say. I sensed Scheinmann's voice in some of the physics, rather than Leo's, but overall I felt the ideas explored were Leo's and worked well to show his progression as a character. I dunno, I liked the two stories and the way extracts from Leo's pages wove them together. I would've liked more about Frank towards the end.

I would have loved to have learned more about Frank.  He was only a small character, but I really warmed to him and felt sorry for him in the early chapters where he wanted to talk to Leo, but couldn't.  And I just loved when he said to his wife, "Sometimes I think your heart must be made of chocolate and gold, because I don't know how you manage to be so lovely."  (I'm paraphrasing, but I know it was something very similar to that).  He was a terrific character.

What is true in Random Acts  
WHAT IS TRUE IN RANDOM ACTS?


Almost everyone who has read the book asks me how much is true. It's a natural question, so let me try and answer it. Like many writers I have taken some true events from my own life and I have improvised and invented stories around them. I treat facts rather like coat hangers from which I can hang fiction.


MORITZ


For example when I was in my late twenties my uncle told me the amazing story of my grandfather, Moshe Scheinmann, who fought for the Austro-Hungarian army and was captured by the Russians in WW1 and taken to a POW camp in Siberia ( we don't know which one). He was obsessed by his childhood sweetheart Lotte and escaped. He walked across Russia and eventually found her in Vienna. It took him 3 years to get there.
My grandfather died in 1938 so there were no details and no witnesses to his remarkable journey so I went to the British Library, researched the period, the history, the geography, accounts of similar journey’s and made up the story of Moritz. I made up Kiraly, the Hungarian who accompanies him, I made up the route, the letters, the cossacks in fact everything that happens to him. But the history and context of his journey is absolutely based on fact. I let the research dictate the story, so when I discovered that many POW's were brainwashed or 're-educated' by the Bolsheviks before they returned in order that they might fan the flames of communism in Europe, I felt compelled to include it in the book.


FRANK


My father arrived from Germany on a Kindertransport at the age of 6, his brother and sister were already in England when he got here. He was brought up in Salford by a working class family. Leo's father Frank arrives alone at the age of 12 and is adopted in Leeds but there the comparisons stop and I wouldn't want anyone to think that my dad is anything like Frank.
My mum, who fled Hungary in 1956, had told me about some Jewish friends of hers who arrived in the UK after persecution in Hungary and decided to completely re-invent themselves as English Christians so that their children would never have to face the same persecution they faced. I found the notion of the complete denial of identity fascinating and wondered how it would affect the children especially if they ever found out. Secretive, dysfunctional characters are fun to write about, Frank took on a life of his own as I was writing him and is one of my favourite charaters in the book.


LEO
In 1992 I was in a bus crash in Ecuador in which my girlfriend was killed. The opening of the book tells this story and, as such, is really the only part of the book which is vaguely autobiographichal. But although I drew on the emotional experience  of this tragedy to create Leo's tragedy many of the events surrounding the crash in the book did not happen to me at all. Pretty much everything that happens after the crash is invented for example I knew nothing about ants or quantum physics before I started working on this story and I am far too lazy to keep a notebook.

Seems I was wrong about the author using Leo to give us his thories.    

I thought the way in which the novel was written was so tender I just wanted to give all the characters a big hug...even Leo. I cannot imagine how horrific the bus crash must have been and to know that Scheinnman actually went through it makes me shudder.

Moritz was wonderful and the journey described in such detail I was there with him every step of the way. I loved the man he met in his little hut (I've forgotten his name but I think it began with O   ) in Siberia ~ his folk tales were lovely and I really think this meeting helped the character progress and gave him more strength as a character.

I just wanted to give Frank a hug (cheesy as it sounds!). So much pain and guilt for all those years made him a very realistic character for me. I know I've got a very guilty concsience ~ always have had and the smallest things keep me up at night. So I guess there were things there that I recognised in myself.

Overall a touching story well told I think! I would definitely recommend this.