Elsewhere by Gabrielle Zevin

[katekintailbc]

Elsewhere
by Gabrielle Zevin
(Audio)

You gotta love a book with a snow globe on the cover :-)

This is the story of Liz, who dies in the beginning of the book. She heads on the U.S.S. Nile to Elsewhere, this book's version of the afterlife. It's a place where people, animals, etc. de-age and then are sent as day-old babies back up the river to be born again and become someone else. So Liz will never turn sixteen. All the things she wanted for herself--a boyfriend, a family, a career, etc.--are gone, and she finds herself living with her grandmother who died of breast cancer before she was even born.

Liz has an understandably difficult time adjusting to this. She is given a vocation (and realizes she can understand dogs when they speak) of helping dogs adjust to the fact that they're dead. She meets a boy and suddenly finds herself falling in love. But there are added complications when Owen's wife from back on Earth dies and joins him in Elsewhere.

It's an interesting concept, especially all the little details like the way you can watch people back on Earth (or try to communicate with them), the way de-aging works, and the mix of cultures and time periods alive in Elsewhere at one time. And complications like elements from a former life are fascinating wrinkles. I also like the idea of becoming someone else but having to lose so much of who you are to do that.

This was a beautiful story about how things happen when you least expect them to, and how important love is. I also liked that you couldn't always side with poor Liz, though you were always sympathetic as a reader; that was well done.