Hello Now
by Jenny Valentine
Teenager Jude enjoys thinking in similes and metaphors, so much so that perhaps Jude’s
whole story—being uprooted, meeting an odd man, and meeting an otherworldly boy who
sees no difference between space and time—is itself a metaphor for first love. The odd
boy, Novo, has equally odd conversations with Jude—I’m unsure whether the
conversations are deep or metaphors or both or neither—while he manipulates time, space
and memories.
— Michael Main
You are the place I return to, in between times. My fulcrum, the point at my center,
around which all of me turns. You are my chance at stillness. The rock in my water. I
know you.
Hello Now by Jenny Valentine (Philomel Books,
March 2020).