When we say that love has no borders, it is very true. We are living through two wars, at this moment, and the “normal” citizens living in these countries do not share what they are living or would like that things could be solved in another way, because war is not the solution, we all know this, weapons do not make sense, and because, those in charge are not always absolutely right, and less and less, because we are in the hands of dangerous people who have lost the forms and values. And this is scary.

This week the photo that has been most popular in social networks has been a picture of two children hugging, one with the flag of Palestine and the other with the flag of Israel. Children are still capable of valuing friendship and love above flags, and, unfortunately, many adults have not yet understood that weapons should not be the resource for anything, it should be dialogue instead, but power and money make people lose their way: humanity is lost in a sad world that does not move forward. Have we evolved so little? It makes me feel very bad to turn on the TV every night and see that I can be sitting peacefully drinking a cup of coffee and thinking about my small problems, because they are still small, when I see the horror that these people are suffering and their despair. I feel helpless and that is why I believe that books like Miquel’s are needed, which, although they do not speak of war but of love between two people from two very different “sides”, it carries messages that should make us reflect.

Miquel explains the life of Martin Heidegger and Hannah Arendt, who met in 1925 at the University of Marburg. He was a professor and she was his student. He was married and she was single. She was eighteen and he was thirty-five. Thus begins Love Beyond World, an extraordinary novel about the relationship they maintained until the end of their lives despite all obstacles. Love Beyond World narrates in a thrilling way and, at the same time, with extreme delicacy, the tumultuous idyll between two of the great figures of European philosophy and thought. How can a sensitive Jewish intellectual and a professor of the highest prestige who was a militant in Hitler’s party love each other? Always marked by an anguished tension, the relationship between Arendt and Heidegger evolves in a stormy way and becomes an example of spiritual and philosophical love that goes beyond earthly ties.

Miquel Esteve has managed to capture one of the most incredible, contradictory and passionate love stories of the last century, still surprisingly forgotten today, which moves forward against the backdrop of some crucial episodes that will forever mark the future of humanity. An ideal reading to delve into the life and work of two key intellectuals to understand the contemporary world and I would add to try to learn from mistakes, that even reading great novels like this one, we are not able to stumble over the same stone.