A complex tale of humanity and how small interactions can change the course of a life.
The quiet story of a man who works in the staging area where people who have recently died spend time reflecting on their lives before moving on to the next stage.
Hirasaka works in a photo studio—one of many, he assumes—where his job is to await deliveries of one photo for every day of a person’s life; then, when that person appears, he helps them come to terms with the fact that they’ve just died. During their time in his studio, he treats them to whatever snacks and beverages were their favorites and gives them space to reflect on their life through photographs. Their job is to choose one picture from every year they were alive; once that task is done and Hirasaka has built a lantern to hold them all, the newly deceased will sit and watch it spin. If a photo looks faded, that means it’s a memory that has been revisited so often it has become worn with use. In those instances, Hirasaka and his guest can travel to the 24 hours of that day to retake the picture so it’s just as rich and vibrant as it was when the memory first formed. That picture is the last thing the person will see in the lantern as they head off to the next stage. The story is told in three richly drawn vignettes, each focusing on a different person being helped by Hirasaka. A bittersweet picture emerges of complicated people from different walks of life impacted by hardships who nonetheless survived—until their ultimate passing, that is, either from natural causes or at the hands of others. As kind, or mean, or nondescript, or memorable as each person is, their strongest memories—perhaps of helping others, or making a wrong choice—are held up as experiences that made them who they are in life, impacting their future selves and who they become in this world and the next.
A complex tale of humanity and how small interactions can change the course of a life.Pub Date: Sept. 17, 2024
ISBN: 9781538757437
Page Count: 224
Publisher: Grand Central Publishing
Review Posted Online: July 19, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2024
Through palpable tension balanced with glimmers of hope, Hoover beautifully captures the heartbreak and joy of starting over.
The sequel to It Ends With Us (2016) shows the aftermath of domestic violence through the eyes of a single mother.
Lily Bloom is still running a flower shop; her abusive ex-husband, Ryle Kincaid, is still a surgeon. But now they’re co-parenting a daughter, Emerson, who's almost a year old. Lily won’t send Emerson to her father’s house overnight until she’s old enough to talk—“So she can tell me if something happens”—but she doesn’t want to fight for full custody lest it become an expensive legal drama or, worse, a physical fight. When Lily runs into Atlas Corrigan, a childhood friend who also came from an abusive family, she hopes their friendship can blossom into love. (For new readers, their history unfolds in heartfelt diary entries that Lily addresses to Finding Nemo star Ellen DeGeneres as she considers how Atlas was a calming presence during her turbulent childhood.) Atlas, who is single and running a restaurant, feels the same way. But even though she’s divorced, Lily isn’t exactly free. Behind Ryle’s veneer of civility are his jealousy and resentment. Lily has to plan her dates carefully to avoid a confrontation. Meanwhile, Atlas’ mother returns with shocking news. In between, Lily and Atlas steal away for romantic moments that are even sweeter for their authenticity as Lily struggles with child care, breastfeeding, and running a business while trying to find time for herself.
Through palpable tension balanced with glimmers of hope, Hoover beautifully captures the heartbreak and joy of starting over.Pub Date: Oct. 18, 2022
ISBN: 978-1-668-00122-6
Page Count: 352
Publisher: Atria
Review Posted Online: July 26, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2022
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
A fresh, funny, ambitious, and nuanced take on some of our oldest existential questions. Cannot wait for the TV series.
What would you do if you knew when you were going to die?
In the first page and a half of her latest page-turner, bestselling Australian author Moriarty introduces a large cast of fascinating characters, all seated on a flight to Sydney that’s delayed on the tarmac. There’s the “bespectacled hipster” with his arm in a cast; a very pregnant woman; a young mom with a screaming infant and a sweaty toddler; a bride and groom, still in their wedding clothes; a surly 6-year-old forced to miss a laser-tag party; a darling elderly couple; a chatty tourist pair; several others. No one even notices the woman who will later become a household name as the “Death Lady” until she hops up from her seat and begins to deliver predictions to each of them about the age they’ll be when they die and the cause of their deaths. Age 30, assault, for the hipster. Age 7, drowning, for the baby in arms. Age 43, workplace accident, for a 42-year-old civil engineer. Self-harm, age 28, for the lovely flight attendant, who is that day celebrating her 28th birthday. Over the next 126 chapters (some just a paragraph), you will get to know all these people, and their reactions to the news of their demise, very well. Best of all, you will get to know Cherry Lockwood, the Death Lady, and the life that brought her to this day. Is it true, as she repeatedly intones on the plane, that “fate won’t be fought”? Does this novel support the idea that clairvoyance is real? Does it find a means to logically dismiss the whole thing? Or is it some complex amalgam of these possibilities? Sorry, you won’t find that out here, and in fact not until you’ve turned all 500-plus pages. The story is a brilliant, charming, and invigorating illustration of its closing quote from Elisabeth Kübler-Ross (we’re not going to spill that either).
A fresh, funny, ambitious, and nuanced take on some of our oldest existential questions. Cannot wait for the TV series.Pub Date: Sept. 10, 2024
ISBN: 9780593798607
Page Count: 512
Publisher: Crown
Review Posted Online: June 15, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2024
PERSPECTIVES
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