The Afterlives by Thomas Pierce ePub Download

November 12, 2018 Romance Literary Fiction

Download The Afterlives by Thomas Pierce PDF free. “The Afterlives: A Novel” is a smart, funny and imaginative work of speculative fiction written for those of us who battle the existential dread of knowing that one day we and everyone we love will die.

Description of the Afterlives by Thomas Pierce PDF

“The Afterlives by Thomas Pierce” is a beautiful and incredibly thought-provoking story about family, friends, love, history, technology, change, community, mortality, and so much more. Thomas Pierce is the author of this beautiful novel. This is a novel which explores existential doubt and the perplexing, confounding mystery of being alive without becoming heavy-handed or dime-store philosophical. It moves quickly, the writing is lovely, competent and often funny, and even more often insightful without pounding home points. It is subtle and wise in the ways it asks questions without then pronouncing facile answers. This novel is a high-art dramatization of the quest to understand what happens when we die and what lies beyond the “tangible” reality we experience through our limited senses.

Protagonist Jim Byrd nearly died from heart failure, yet returned from his near-death experience with no memory of where he went or what happened in the space of death. Ordinary life afterwards seems a bit surreal, but otherwise normal. Jim reunites with a high-school girlfriend who is now widowed, he comes to know of an active ghost site in his small town, and he becomes involved in The Church of Search, all of which allow him to more actively interrogate what the hell happens when this life ends. Is there something beyond? Is it surrounding us all the time? Is there some way to exist in that space without dying first?

The unfolding story is grounded in realism and rendered through Jim’ likeable consciousness, which is curious, dubious, tender, and wry. It’s difficult to imagine a dramatization of this particular quest that isn’t somehow campy, overwrought, overblown, or melodramatic (as most things approaching the paranormal tend to be), but Pierce is a gifted storyteller, and this novel is unique in its subject matter and its ability to take it on. The Afterlives also blends these big questions of the supernatural with those of technological advancement and dependence, which create brilliant echoes and eerie possibilities throughout the book. You can also Download Dead to Me by Lesley Pearse PDF.