A Novel's Polestar

"A long-exposure photograph of the night sky will show you something that you never see, however often you look at the stars: thousands of perfect curves, concentrically arranged around an invisible pinhead. Everything is wheeling slowly about a single point. 

"A good book or a great adventure, fictional or real, often does the same.  There is a fulcrum: a still, quiet centre to the tale."

Matthew Parris