The Girl from Petrovka


This is one that we’ve known about since before starting the blog, but somehow we forgot to post it. It’s a good one…and even comes with a celebrity.
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When Anthony Hopkins was researching his part for the film of George Feifer’s The Girl from Petrovka, he searched London bookshops for a copy of the novel. Unable to find one, he went into Leicester Square subway station to catch a train home. Lying on a bench in the station was the book, evidently left behind by a fellow traveler.

That in itself is astounding, but two years later, while in the midst of filming in Vienna, Hopkins was greeted on the set by Feifer. The author mentioned that he no longer had a copy of his own book, and told Hopkins how he had lent his last copy to a friend who had mislaid it somewhere in London. Feifer added that it had especially annoyed him because he had annotated that particular copy. Scarcely believing that such a coincidence could be possible, Hopkins handed Feifer the copy he’d found at the subway station. “Is this the one?” he asked. “With the notes scribbled in the margins? It was indeed the book Feifer’s friend had lost.

The odds? Astronomical.

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8 Responses to The Girl from Petrovka

  1. Sansego says:

    This tale is new to me, so I'm glad you reposted it. I love it! The odds are just too astronomically great to be dismissed as "just a coincidence"! I've had arguments with atheists who dismiss any and all occurences of coincidence as being the outcome of mathematical odds, like winning the lottery or getting struck by lightning. A story like this, though…just doesn't seem likely without a major significant spiritual force behind it.

  2. Nancy says:

    Wow, that was a very cool one!

  3. Trish and Rob MacGregor says:

    I wonder if Hopkins has had any more synchronicities like this one!

  4. whipwarrior says:

    A remarkable one-in-a-million synchronicity deserving of re-telling in your book, if there ever was one. I wonder if Hopkins still remembers the incident?

  5. Trish and Rob MacGregor says:

    Yep, we found it. Back in Feb. when we started the blog. Now it's up here twice. And still a very mysterious tale.

  6. ~JarieLyn~ says:

    This is very very cool.

  7. whipwarrior says:

    *I* sent you that one! And I think you actually did post it here, back at the very beginning of this blog.

  8. Natalie says:

    Too awesome!

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