The Beachcomber

A traveler from the far future has washed up on a world of primitive humans, and he has been waiting there, alone, for longer than any of them can fathom. When Maxwell and Alice arrive to visit this strange figure they call the Beachcomber, they find a man burdened with knowledge no human was meant to carry alone. He has seen the end of everything, and now he lives among people who cannot possibly understand what he has witnessed or why he has returned to their ancient world. Knight's slim, devastating tale asks what happens to a person who carries the weight of all future history and finds themselves stranded among those who live in innocence. It is a story about loneliness as physical as the shore where the Beachcomber walks, and about the impossible distance between knowing too much and living well. The encounter leaves both visitors and reader wondering whether ignorance might be the only bearable way to exist.