Summary

Part One is titled Life Among the Mayflies. There are a couple of pages that serve as an opening scene before the first chapter. Tom introduces himself. He looks about 40 years old. However, he was born in 1581, more than 400 years ago, in a French chateau. Tom was not immediately aware of his “condition.” He makes the point that it is not an “illness” because that implies “wasting away.” In the 1890s, a doctor gave it a name – anageria. During the early years, people with anageria seem to mature faster than normal, but that slows down at puberty so that they barely age. People with anageria age at a fraction of the normal. They are not immortal, but they do live a long time. These people tend to have immunity to most diseases, though this decreases with time...