The Second Horizon

The Second Horizon begins with a question that survives the end of a war: what do we do with the life we have fought to keep?

In The Unbroken Sky, Maksym and Kateryna learned to trust one another under conditions in which a mistake could cost everything. This novel follows them into a different kind of uncertainty. A future together becomes possible, but possibility brings decisions of its own. The habits that protect someone in danger may not be enough to help them live in peace.

I wanted to give Kateryna room to become more than the role war required of her. Her discipline and courage remain important, but so do her doubts, her affections and her right to imagine an ordinary life. As the story moves towards larger public responsibilities, those private hopes continue to matter. Political decisions reach into kitchens and bedrooms long after the speeches have ended.

The title points towards a future that cannot be seen clearly from the place where the journey begins. Invention may open a way forward. It cannot decide on our behalf how power should be used, who should bear its risks, or whose voice deserves to be heard.

This is a work of fiction, including its imagined technologies and political developments. I hope you will read it first as the continuing story of two people learning how to share a life. The larger question can travel with them: how might we build a peace that gives people something worth coming home to?

Stuart Corlett