What do you think happened to George and Irene in the end?

What do you think happened to George and Irene in the end? Do you think there are multiple ways to read this ending?

I like to believe that they are going to have a long and happy life together.

I like the second half of this question - "Do you think there are multiple ways to read this ending?" Because my thought was that it was certainly possible Irene truly did die in a plane crash and George never recovered from surgery, that their reunion was all his coma-dream. Part of me really did wonder if that's what the author intended -- for the ending to be ambiguous. But then there was that last part where he proposed using tulips planted in binary code, which kind of steered me back to the literal reading of the end.

I like books with endings that can be read on multiple levels. Yes, they both could have died. Could their souls have re-united? These are good points for discussion at book groups.

At first I thought it might be a dream for either or both of them. But when Irene was talking about her work and the fact that she didn't get the flowers right away, I really hoped that it was that fairy tale ending. It seems like they had gone through so much in their fairly young lives that a happy ending was called for.

No doubt they will have a HEA

I thought they ended up together; but I liked kimk's idea that it was all a dream in Georges coma state. That seemed to fit better with the authors style of writing and theme of dreams.

They will live an active, engaged and long and happy life together. Their marriage is written in the stars. :)

It is certainly a curious literary convention - almost as if the author is giving us a choice. The pragmatic side of me sees the hard reality of the facts. The hopeful, romantic side of me sees them together forever. We just don't know, but in some ways we are given permission to write our own ending.

I like the fact that the reader is set free to choose an ending, but personally, i was ready for the novel to have a happy ending, so that's the one I chose.

They had a happy ever after life. The big question is was it because of their mothers' manipulations and astrology? I like to think that they would have turned on to each other without their mothers' actions. Life and love are far more complex than a few shared interests.

I would like to think that they had a nice life together.

As did others, I feel the novel's ending was somewhat open ended; allowing the reader to choose a more traditional happy ending, or, perhaps, a more mystic ending -one, I feel, was more in tune with the tone of the book.