I bought a used copy of A Brief History of Time for a few dollars, then carried it 6,000 km around Australia without opening it once. It took Stephen Hawking’s passing to finally get me started, and 47 days later, one question from Chapter 9 followed me all the way to a beach volley match. And what I saw there changed how I think about my own Life...

I’m almost impossible to surprise. Once, I even sat through a surprise birthday party at my gym, pretending I had no idea. But in April 2016, on a dark, freezing night in Aktau, Kazakhstan, a hand grabbed my arm in a crowded arrivals hall. “Luca! It’s me!” It was Roza, the friend who had sworn she couldn’t meet me that night. Read how a promise made in a Hong Kong nightclub led me to the shores of the Caspian Sea...