The Sanctuary of Tomorrow is the kind of novella that makes you think. Set against the backdrop of Europe between the end of the First World War and the rise of fascism in the 1930s, it tells the story of Martino Griffiths, a telepath forced to flee and endure in a world where his gift is branded a curse. With magical realism elements evoking Salman Rushdie, but a plot set firmly in the real world, this is a difficult book to classify. Nonetheless, from the very first page, the sense of danger is immediate and inescapable. “The whispers of strangers’ thoughts haunted his dreams, and he’d wake up drenched in sweat, unable to meet anyone’s gaze,” the author writes, and with that we are plunged into the imagination of Lyntara Choi.
The first chapter situates Martino in Florence, a city still reeling from war, “The First World War had twisted the once-thriving city into a place of shadowed horror and constant fear.” Martino hides in borrowed rooms, never staying long, always fearing discovery. His telepathic gift isolates him, making even ordinary human contact fraught with suspicion. Despite the pacing that feels admittedly a little rushed, within a single chapter we are out of Italy and whisked to London to meet the Ocampo-Weber family. The prose is steeped in sensory detail, bringing the historical setting to life. Choi makes us feel the constant precariousness of Martino’s existence, and this unease underpins the story. I did have a few questions that are left unanswered about the reason for his superpowers and the author’s choice to set the story in this time period, but that doesn’t stop it being fun to read.
Choi’s prose is mostly competently written and easy to read. She writes with a clear eye for atmosphere, and you can tell she enjoyed writing this story. However, there is a sense at points the novel could have benefited from another edit. I admit I was slightly confused by certain creative choices, “Max worked as a scientist and part-time detective, balancing science and intuition in equal measure”. Still, Choi has a gift for creating memorable characters, and she alternates between both Martino’s perspective and Max and Jodi, who is non-binary which was of course not socially approved in this era. The pacing of the story is deliberate, even meditative despite its relatively brief length, alternating between moments of flight and pause.
What lingers most after finishing The Sanctuary of Tomorrow is not the chase sequences or even the climactic confrontations, but the tender, everyday moments that Choi allows to breathe in between, such as Max making breakfast for her kids. In this way, the novella’s speculative conceit—telepathy as a persecuted identity—never overshadows its human core. Instead, Choi uses the extraordinary to heighten the poignancy of the ordinary, asking us to reflect on how sanctuary is created not by walls but by relationships, not by secrecy but by the trust given by our friends and family to share one’s truest self.
Overall, The Sanctuary of Tomorrow is an enjoyable little debut novella, ultimately about the necessary persistence of hope. Despite the novella having a couple of flaws, I am looking forward to seeing how Choi’s writing evolves as she grows as a writer. It is a book about the desperate human need to belong somewhere, even if only temporarily, and the way chosen family sustain that need in the harshest of times. Choi has written a story that explores the beauty of unexpected connection and true friendship in a world that tries to erase both. Following the end of the novella is a series of entertaining illustrations, in fact “a prequel mini-comic”, which I found nice additions despite finding the text a bit difficult to parse.
Final verdict: Despite some editorial hiccups and questions left unexplored, this is a solid debut novella that deserves to be read slowly, savoured, and remembered. For fans of Khaled Hosseini, its appeal comes not from dramatic events but from its quiet focus on the value of individual lives and their place in history. In Martino Griffiths and Maxine Ocampo-Weber, Choi has given us characters who we can all find aspects of ourselves in.
You can get your copy of “The Sanctuary of Tomorrow” here!
