Milarepa by Éric-Emmanuel Schmitt. Short summary

5 seconds

Every night Simon has the same incomprehensible dream. The protagonist does not understand the meaning of the dream, but a strange woman reveals the truth.

1 minute

One day, man Simon begins to have the same dream, the meaning of which he cannot explain. A lady he meets reveals to him — he, in her opinion, is the reincarnation of his uncle Milarepa — a famous hermit who lived in Tibet in the 11th century.

A close relative of Milarepa harbored an ineradicable hatred for the latter. To break the circle of endless rebirths, Simon has to identify himself with the two aforementioned representatives of the stronger sex to the extent that his personality merges with their personas. But he ceases to understand where his dreams end and reality begins.

Schmitt himself tries to find out if reality exists outside of our perception of the environment. According to the author, he was able to realize that only an applied effort can create well-being. The writer adds that he was able to understand that good is more difficult to form than evil.