In a world where an “envisionist” can tell you whether your partner is really your soulmate, how could the course of true love not run smooth? Evelyn and Godfrey are about to count the ways.

Meet Evelyn and Godfrey. Evelyn is breaking up with her boyfriend, who's passing out advertisements for his band on a snowy street corner in Baltimore. She's seen their dismal future together at Dr. Chin's office: she and her boyfriend, both many years older, singing “Happy Birthday” to a Chihuahua and arguing about cheese. She hopes for more. Meanwhile, Godfrey is proposing to his girlfriend, Madge, who's not quite willing to take that leap; she wants to see their future together first—just to be sure they're meant for each other.

The Future for Curious People follows Evelyn and Godfrey's soon-to-be-entwined lives, set in motion by the fabulist premise of a world with envisionists like Dr. Chin. In struggling with their pasts and possible futures, the characters encounter the mysteries of sorrow, love, death, and fate. It's a story that will capture you with its brightness, its hopefulness, its anxious twists and turns. It is a love story that is ultimately a statement about happiness and how to accept our fleeting existence.

Gregory Sherl