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L'histoire débute en 1965, alors qu'un contrôleur aérien de la base américaine Edwards, en Californie, détecte sur ses écrans radar un étrange objet n'obéissant à aucune des lois de la physique connues jusque-là. Recouvert du mystère et du secret, l'épisode demeure caché mais il a un impact majeur sur la vie humaine, jusqu'à rebondir des années plus tard alors qu'un groupe de personnes part en mission pour explorer les différentes évolutions possibles de la race humaine dans le futur éloigné de la terre, espérant influencer les décisions et les actions du présent afin d'aligner l'humanité sur le meilleur visage qu'elle pourrait adopter. Dans ce livre unique, le Dr Mario Beauregard, spécialiste en neuroscience mondialement reconnu, soulève plusieurs questions fondamentales en rapport avec l'évolution future de l'espèce humaine et de la vie sur Terre. Mélangeant allègrement l'imaginaire et la réalité (une méthode récemment popularisée par Dan Brown), ce roman constitue aussi une tentative de dénonciation d'un système économique d'esclavage reposant sur une vision essentiellement réductrice et darwinienne du monde et de l'humanité. Par ailleurs, ce livre se veut également initiatique dans la mesure où il suggère que seul un saut de conscience menant à une spiritualité universelle peut nous permettre d'échapper à un monde barbare obnubilé par le pouvoir et les Ténèbres.

Ever since The Devil's wife left him to'go find herself,'the overlord of Hell has had a hard time replacing her. As his dreamcatcher, she protected all realms of the afterlife by filtering his most insidious imaginings. Now, The Devil thinks he's found a viable substitute in Elinor Powell, the kindest of the four teen friends known as Team DEVIL.Team DEVIL will do anything to protect Elinor—especially Alfarin, the bighearted Viking prince who loves her. But the only way to save her is to find The Devil's wife—a banshee who has concealed herself somewhere within the Nine Circles of Hell. In Team DEVIL's third quest, narrated hilariously and poignantly by Prince Alfarin, the four friends brave Dante's old stomping grounds for an adventure they'll never forget... if their dead souls can survive it.

Jonathan Martin Delaware Deseronto is a six-foot-five serial killer with a problem. He's stuck out on I-476 in a heavy November rainstorm with two flat tires and the dead bodies of a cop and a co-ed named Marissa Madison in his trunk. Desperate to get off the highway, he drives his car on its back rims towards Exit 6. The car stalls on the ramp and Deseronto uses the last of its momentum to plunge over the crest of a steep slope and crash into a length of concrete pipe below. The car comes to rest on the edge of a construction site where machines are positioned to tear down an old Motel 6.For Deseronto, the worst is yet to come. Marissa Madison had been a psychic of sorts while alive, using her ability to assist people in their personal journeys. Now, the ghost of Marissa will utilize her strange gift, trapping Deseronto in the abandoned motel, and forcing him to live the last, fatal week of her own life as a passive passenger in her body... Soon, Deseronto will experience something truly horrific: the mind-numbing terror of being stalked by himself.

Where do we go when we die? Loreena knows. She's been there, and it's not at all like her uncle, a reverend at a small-town church, thinks it is.Loreena Picket is a blind young woman who lives with her uncle, a reverend at a small-town church. Loreena has a strange gift, which she's not really sure is a gift at all. Her uncle has made good use of it, involving her in end-of-life “ceremonies,” during which she helps terminally ill people die in the most humane of ways. Taking their hands, she kills them with an invisible, painless power, but not before traveling with them to the other side. The payoff? On her journey to the afterlife with her companion, she can see.Loreena's uncle believes her power is a gift from God, but when Loreena's troubled brother returns to town, she saves his life by killing a drug dealer who isn't ill at all. Thrown deeper into her brother's dark world and forced to survive being kidnapped and used for her power, she begins to wonder: Is she angel of mercy, or evil assassin?

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • The bestselling author of Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Cafe is at her superb best in this fun-loving, moving novel about what it means to be truly alive.WINNER OF THE SOUTHERN BOOK PRIZE Elmwood Springs, Missouri, is a small town like any other, but something strange is happening at the cemetery. Still Meadows, as it's called, is anything but still. Original, profound, The Whole Town's Talking, a novel in the tradition of Thornton Wilder's Our Town and Flagg's own Can't Wait to Get to Heaven, tells the story of Lordor Nordstrom, his Swedish mail-order bride, Katrina, and their neighbors and descendants as they live, love, die, and carry on in mysterious and surprising ways. Lordor Nordstrom created, in his wisdom, not only a lively town and a prosperous legacy for himself but also a beautiful final resting place for his family, friends, and neighbors yet to come. “Resting place” turns out to be a bit of a misnomer, however. Odd things begin to happen, and it starts the whole town talking. With her wild imagination, great storytelling, and deep understanding of folly and the human heart, the beloved Fannie Flagg tells an unforgettable story of life, afterlife, and the remarkable goings-on of ordinary people. In The Whole Town's Talking, she reminds us that community is vital, life is a gift, and love never dies.Praise for The Whole Town's Talking“A witty multigenerational saga... [Fannie] Flagg's down-home wisdom, her affable humor and her long view of life offer a pleasant respite in nerve-jangling times.”—People “Fannie Flagg at her best.”—The Florida Times-Union “If there's one thing Fannie Flagg can do better than anybody else, it's tell a story, and she outdoes herself in The Whole Town's Talking.... Brilliant... equally on the level as her famous Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Cafe.”—The Newport Plain Talk “Delightful.”—The Washington Post “A ringing affirmation of love, community and life itself.”—Richmond Times-Dispatch

'Irreducible to any single literary genre, the Volodinian cosmos is skillfully crafted, fusing elements of science fiction with magical realism and political commentary.'—Nicholas Hauck, Music & LiteratureOne of Volodine's funniest books, Bardo or Not Bardo takes place in his universe of failed revolutions, radical shamanism, and off-kilter nomenclature.In each of these seven vignettes, someone dies and has to make his way through the Tibetan afterlife, also known as the Bardo. In the Bardo, souls wander for forty-nine days before being reborn, helped along on their journey by the teachings of the Book of the Dead.Unfortunately, Volodine's characters bungle their chances at enlightenment, with the recently dead choosing to waste away their afterlife sleeping, or choosing to be reborn as an insignificant spider. The still-living aren't much better off, making a mess of things in their own ways, such as erroneously reciting a Tibetan cookbook to a lost comrade instead of the holy book.Once again, Volodine has demonstrated his range and ambition, crafting a moving, hysterical work about transformations and the power of the book.Antoine Volodine is the primary pseudonym of a French writer who has published twenty books under this name, several of which are available in English translation, such as Minor Angels, and Writers. He also publishes under the names Lutz Bassmann and Manuela Draeger.J. T. Mahany is a graduate of the Master of Arts in Literary Translation Studies program at the University of Rochester and is currently studying for his MFA at the University of Arkansas.

Middle school is a life and death experience for Annabel Craven, a girl able to communicate with the spirit world with her phone. From the author of I TEXT DEAD PEOPLE comes the second novel in the Dead Serious series! All Annabel Craven wants is to be normal. But that's hard to do when ghosts keep texting her. And keeping her secret from her nosy new stepsister isn't going to be easy.When a ghost girl named Harper begs Anna to help her rejoin the living, Anna warns her that it's impossible. Once you're dead, you can't just start living again... or can you?Includes morbidly-cute black-and-white illustrations!'Goosebumps lite, featuring mean girls, machinations, and cell phones with unusual apps.'--Booklist

The acclaimed author of The Forever War imagines a future in which most of humanity has abandoned Earth for man-made habitats orbiting the troubled world. In Worlds, Worlds Apart, and Worlds Enough and Time, the Hugo and Nebula Award–winning author imagines a near future rife with exhilarating and terrifying possibilities, when hundreds of thousands of human beings have abandoned the Earth's surface to live in man-made habitats orbiting the troubled planet. Haldeman's science fiction saga follows Marianne O'Hara, a young inhabitant of the World known as New New York, from her arrival on Earth as a student who becomes seduced by radical politics, through her coming of age amid the Worlds'war and the habitats'devastation, and ultimately to Marianne's emergence as a leader—and possibly the last hope of the human race as it heads toward the stars. Stephen King said of the first book in Haldeman's trilogy, “There are scenes in Worlds I will remember forever.” These gripping novels will enthrall anyone interested in the future—that of our planet and of the human race.

“IN A LIFE FULL OF LIES, HE FINALLY SETTLED FOR THE TRUTH.”No one in Mattingly ever believed Bobby Barnes would live to see old age. Drink would either rot Bobby from the inside out or dull his senses just enough to send his truck off the mountain on one of his nightly rides. Although Bobby believes such an end possible—and even likely—it doesn't stop him from taking his twin sons Matthew and Mark into the mountains one Saturday night. A sharp curve, blinding headlights, metal on metal, his sons'screams. Bobby's final thought as he sinks into blackness is a curious one—There will be stars.Yet it is not death that greets him beyond the veil. Instead, he returns to the day he has just lived and finds he is not alone in this strange new world. Six others are trapped with him.Bobby soon discovers that this supposed place of peace is actually a place of secrets and hidden dangers. Along with three others, he seeks to escape, even as the world around him begins to crumble. The escape will lead some to greater life, others to endless death... and Bobby Barnes to understand the deepest nature of love.

In this stunning, fantastical debut novel from a bold new voice in the bestselling traditions of Christopher Moore and Jasper Fforde, a ferryman for the dead finds his existence unraveling after making either the best decision or the biggest mistake of his immortal life.Ferryman Charlie Dawson saves dead people—somebody has to convince them to move on to the afterlife, after all. Having never failed a single assignment, he's acquired a reputation for success that's as legendary as it is unwanted. It turns out that serving as a Ferryman is causing Charlie to slowly lose his mind. Deemed too valuable by the Ferryman Institute to be let go and too stubborn to just give up in his own right, Charlie's pretty much abandoned all hope of escaping his grim existence. Or he had, anyway, until he saved Alice Spiegel. To be fair, Charlie never planned on stopping Alice from taking her own life—that sort of thing is strictly forbidden by the Institute—but he never planned on the President secretly giving him the choice to, either. Charlie's not quite sure what to make of it, but Alice is alive, and it's the first time he's felt right in more than two hundred years. When word of the incident reaches Inspector Javrouche, the Ferryman Institute's resident internal affairs liaison, Charlie finds he's in a world of trouble. But Charlie's not about to lose the only living, breathing person he's ever saved without a fight. He's ready to protect her from Javrouche and save Alice from herself, and he's willing to put the entire continued existence of mankind at risk to do it. Written in the same vein as bestselling modern classics such as The Eyre Affair by Jasper Fforde and A Dirty Job by Christopher Moore, The Ferryman Institute is a thrilling supernatural adventure packed with wit and humor.

Bob Marley is dead. The Emperor Haile Selassie has been brutally murdered. The armed gangs of Kingston are at war and the murder rate soars. The people have lost all trust in self-serving politicians. It is hard to imagine worse times. The Marvellous Equations of the Dread tells the twin stories of Jamaica's nihilistic violence and its wondrously creative humanity and does truthful justice to both.

Ever since Riley Strout lost her mother two years ago, her survival has depended on her other family: the quirky kids she met in a grief support group at school. Jay, Kate, and Noah are the only people who understand her pain; each lost a loved one. When Riley sees her dead mother shopping in a grocery store, she fears post-traumatic stress—until Jay and Kate report similar visions. Noah, having seen nothing, withdraws. Soon he disappears, and Riley fears the worst. But the frantic search for him unexpectedly draws Riley and the other two into a mystery surrounding a centuries-old relic and the clues it might offer about the afterlife. By reaching for the ones who are gone, Riley uncovers hidden truths about those she hasn't yet lost.

Three months ago, a cosmic storm entered Earth's atmosphere, mystifying scientists with its unprecedented side effect: those who have died and chosen not to cross over are suddenly palpable, and can interact with the living. The “Impals” are embraced by their loved ones, but persecuted by those who fear them. The government's solution is to send them “back” using the Tesla Gate—which could destroy the soul. When Major Cecil Garrison tries to rescue Thomas Pendleton and his son, Seth, from this fate, he finds himself imprisoned by his own father, General Ott Garrison. After a daring escape, Cecil joins the Myriad Resistance, a movement to save the Impals from what most consider a government sanctioned holocaust. Tragedy strikes just as the Impals start their dangerous exodus to Europe beneath the murky waters of the Chesapeake Bay. And this is only the beginning, as the eye of the storm envelopes the Earth—bringing darkness and horror beyond imagination...

A minister's wife finds herself in hell. The story of Lazarus and the rich man in Luke 16:19-31 gives a chilling insight into the afterlife. It is a story that is not often addressed because it makes clear the separation of people upon death. Frank Winscott, a retired minister, works at comparing translations of the Bible. Eugena has ignored her husband's work and his sermons all her life. Instead, she finds meaning in her potter's shed, where she makes different forms of ziggurats that she places in her kiln, a little symbol of hell. Though Eugena rejects Frank's insistence that there is a heaven and hell, she finds that she has worked with the shape of both and never knew it. In the end, she realizes that heaven and hell are in the shape of ziggurats, one rising and the other sinking. Her beloved ziggurats become the ironic witness of what her husband preached. Meanwhile, Frank and Eugena struggle to make sense of their lives after the death of their addict son, Daniel. When he is killed in a car accident, Frank and Eugena argue over whether Daniel's death was truly an accident, or whether his car may have been pushed off the road. The novel begins,'Another letter from the afterlife, you might say. But this one starts before the afterlife and continues into it.'When Eugena dies, she travels through hell to find her son, Daniel. Frank sends the last chapter from heaven. The novel was influenced by Dante's The Divine Comedy and begins with an epigraph from The Inferno,'What I was living, that I am dead.'

For the first time in nearly thirty years of marriage, Art McElroy Sr. buys his headstrong, disapproving wife a dozen yellow roses. Hours later he discovers her lifeless body seated on the toilet. Mae Rose McElroy's sudden death leaves a void in her family and in the entire Midwestern farming community of Fairview. It's a void Mae Rose will attempt to fill, herself, from the hereafter by meddling directly in earthly affairs. Mae Rose's meddling leads to her spiritual expulsion from heaven, and she winds up in the body of Mary Lee Broadmoor (Scary Mary), a crusty writer and director of exquisite horror movies. Mary Lee refuses to succumb to stage-4 pancreatic cancer until she gets one final shot at an elusive Oscar. Like Mae Rose, who argues with God for a return to earth, Mary Lee pleads, from her Hollywood deathbed, for more time to complete her work, as her hospice nurse, Gertie Morgan, looks on. The two women's spirits work together, and Mae Rose provides her host with a new script idea: a love story, based on her life! The script earns Mary Lee her coveted Academy Award, but the movie's release shocks and disturbs Mae Rose's family. They set out to find, and confront, the woman who has somehow co-opted, and publicly revealed, their personal tragedy. Along the way, new love emerges as the reader meets a caste of crazy, eccentric, but highly memorable characters. Death by Roses suggests that relationships don't end at death, but continue until their ultimate purpose is achieved. The universe has every resource at its disposal to get the job done. It also has an amazing sense of humor

Fans of Adam Gidwitz and Neil Gaiman will love this middle-grade adventure about two boys, a mysterious, old book with some dark secrets, and a horde of angry demons. Nothing could go wrong, right? When Walter Prairie is struck dead by a bolt of lightning, he's fast-tracked through the Afterlife Academy and assigned as a Guardian Agent to protect a High-Level Target. Walter's HLT, Charlie Dewdle, isn't the most popular kid in school. He's a bit paranormally obsessed. And he has just found an old book that could be used to open the Gateway for demons to wreak havoc on earth. Now, it's up to Charlie and Walter to fight an eclectic horde of enemies and protect humankind at all costs. But saving the world isn't so easy. Especially when your protector doesn't know the first thing about the underworld, bullies like Mo Horvath are trying to hunt you down, pretty and popular Melissa Bittner is suddenly talking to you, and your parents think you're going crazy. A Whitney Award Nominee “An appealing ghost story without being creepy, this title would be a great read for any reader looking for a mix of adventure and humor.”—School Library Journal “A fun, suspenseful read.... Cole's fast-paced fantasy can be enjoyed by the entire family.”—Deseret News'The adventure of a lifetime--or after-lifetime.'--OBERT SKYE, author of the Leven Thumps series'A fast-paced and fun adventure that puts a new twist on the afterlife!'--PLATTE F. CLARK, author of Bad Unicorn “Tons of fun and adventure with every turn of the page.... This is the perfect middle-grade book, and I loved it!”—LDSWBR

If you had one chance to change your future, would you? Now in paperback! Seventeen-year-old RJ always gets what she wants. So when her soul is accidentally collected by a distracted Grim Reaper, somebody in the afterlife better figure out a way to send her back from the dead or heads will roll.But in her quest for mortality, she becomes a pawn in a power struggle between an overzealous archangel and Death Himself. The tribunal presents her with two options: she can remain in the lobby, where souls wait to be processed, until her original lifeline expires, or she can replay three moments in her life in an effort to make choices that will result in a future deemed worthy of being saved. It sounds like a no-brainer. She'll take a walk down memory lane. How hard can changing her future be?But with each changing moment, RJ's life begins to unravel, until this self-proclaimed queen bee is a social pariah. Is walking among the living worth it if she has to spend the next sixty years as an outcast?

Finalist for the 2014 Man Booker Prize“J is a snarling, effervescent, and ambitious philosophical work of fiction that poses unsettling questions about our sense of history, and our self-satisfied orthodoxies. Jacobson's triumph is to craft a novel that is poignant as well as troubling from the debris.” —Independent (UK) Man Booker Prize–winner Howard Jacobson's brilliant and profound new novel, J, “invites comparison with George Orwell's 1984 and Aldous Huxley's Brave New World” (Sunday Times, London). Set in a world where collective memory has vanished and the past is a dangerous country, not to be talked about or visited, J is a boldly inventive love story, both tender and terrifying. Kevern Cohen doesn't know why his father always drew two fingers across his lips when he said a word starting with a J. It wasn't then, and isn't now, the time or place to be asking questions. When the extravagantly beautiful Ailinn Solomons arrives in his village by a sea that laps no other shore, Kevern is instantly drawn to her. Although mistrustful by nature, the two become linked as if they were meant for each other. Together, they form a refuge from the commonplace brutality that is the legacy of a historic catastrophe shrouded in suspicion, denial, and apology, simply referred to as WHAT HAPPENED, IF IT HAPPENED. To Ailinn's guardian, Esme Nussbaum, Ailinn and Kevern are fragile shoots of hopefulness. As this unusual pair's actions draw them into ever-increasing danger, Esme is determined to keep them together—whatever the cost. In this stunning, evocative, and terribly heartbreaking work, where one couple's love affair could have shattering consequences for the human race, Howard Jacobson gathers his prodigious gifts for the crowning achievement of a remarkable career.

Handsome and haunted, he's a reaper who prefers to work alone. But Fate has other plans for him and the sassy secret agent who shot him in another life—if their pasts don't catch up with them first. Dmitri Stavitsky has never played well with others—a Soviet KGB spy in life turned reaper after death, his work of bringing souls to the other side is best done alone. But orders from the top soon place him alongside fellow reaper Gwen Peterson, the American counter intelligence agent who took his life so many years ago. Now, as a ghost from Gwen's past resurfaces with the power to steal reapers'souls, the two have no choice but to set aside their differences and apprehend the rogue together. But their cross-country mission soon ignites feelings Dmitri thought he was no longer capable of—for the woman who helped destroy him. With an ancient force and a small army against them, he'll have to let go of old grudges or risk his future with Gwen...as Fate hangs dangerously in the balance. Praise for Lori Sjoberg's Grave Intentions'A highly enjoyable, intelligently written story.'93,000 Words

In the Walls of Eryx was written in the year 1939 by Howard Phillips Lovecraft. This book is one of the most popular novels of Howard Phillips Lovecraft, and has been translated into several other languages around the world. This book is published by Booklassic which brings young readers closer to classic literature globally.

What would you do if you never got to tell that one person how you felt? What if you could go back and tell them exactly how you felt? Seventeen-year-old Izabella De Luca is about to find out after a fatal car crash traps her between the living and the dead. But telling her true love how she feels does not relieve her from her burden. Soon she and her love, Johnny, find themselves in an all-out battle to keep their love alive. Nobody is safe when an evil demon named Devlin starts messing with everything and everyone they know. Can their love withstand all of the odds stacked against them or are they doomed from the start?

“A danse macabre for millennials” from the author of 70% Acrylic 30% Wool, winner of the Campiello First Novel Award (Los Angeles Review of Books). A finalist for the PEN Literary Award for Translation, this courageous, inventive, and intelligent novel tells the story of a suicide and what follows. Viola Di Grado has given voice to an astonishing vision of life after life, portraying the awful longing and sense of loss that plague the dead, together with the solitude incited by the impossibility of communicating. The afterlife itself is seen as a dark, seething place where one is preyed upon by the cruel and unrelenting elements. Hollow Heart will frighten as it provokes, enlighten as it causes concern. If ever there were a novel that follows Kafka's prescription for a book to be an axe for the frozen sea within us, it is Hollow Heart. “The writing is pristine. Each sentence lures us further into the flies and blood-filled spirals of Di Grado's dreamworld and, most importantly, we are willing to follow her.” —The Independent “Di Grado plays an inventive, self-aware game with language that saturates her macabre landscapes, transforming them into darkly comical expositions of death and unhappiness.” —Music & Literature Magazine “Hollow Heart has the authentic ring of autobiography. Pure imagination is incapable of inventing something this assured, this intense and vivid... A writer this powerful is scary.” —Sarah Wu “Hollow Heart... is just as strongly written as its predecessor, taking the black, manic tone of the earlier book and pushing it into a new territory—beyond the grave.” —Tony's Reading List

The only novel written by the playwright Oscar Wilde, The Picture of Dorian Gray, is at the same time an aestheticist story and a thriller. Dorian Gray offended the moral sensibilities of British book reviewers, some of whom said that Oscar Wilde merited prosecution. Nowadays, we know that despite its famous anti-moralist preface and its gothic contents, it still is in certain regards a moral tale – a very fascinating one. Complete 20-chapter version including preface of 1891.

It's 1955, and Benjamin Burrows and Janie Scott are trying to live a safe, normal life in America. It's not easy, when they have the power to prevent nuclear disaster, and sinister forces are circling. Soon the advice of a mysterious, unscrupulous magician propels Janie and Benjamin into danger, and toward the land of the dead. Meanwhile, their friend Jin Lo washes up on a remote island where an American spy is stationed, and finds herself on the trail of a deadly threat in China. But she's on the other side of the world—how can Janie and Benjamin reach her? The triumphant finale in the trilogy that began with Maile Meloy's bestselling, critically acclaimed The Apothecary, and continued in its captivating sequel, The Apprentices, The After-Room is full of enchantment and heart, with Ian Schoenherr's stunning illustrations throughout.

Six years ago, Melody Pieterson was attacked and left for dead. Only a chance encounter with a dog walker saved her life. Melody's neighbor and close friend David Alden was found guilty of the crime and imprisoned, and the attack and David's betrayal of her friendship left Melody a different person. She no longer trusts her own judgment, she no longer trusts her friends. In fact, she no longer really has any friends. She's built a life behind walls and gates and security codes; she's cloistered herself away from the world almost entirely.And then, soon after David is released from prison, Eve Elliot is murdered in an attack almost identical to Melody's. With the start of a new police investigation, Melody is suddenly pulled from her ordered, secluded life and back into the messy world around her. But as she learns more about Eve's murder, Melody starts to wonder if perhaps David hadn't betrayed her after all...if perhaps the killer is someone else entirely, someone who's still out there, preparing to strike again.Narrated alternately by Melody and by Eve's lingering ghost, The Life I Left Behind is a taut thriller and an intimate look at two young women bound together in ways neither of them could ever have predicted. Colette McBeth has proven once again that she is a master of suspense.

First in the ghostly urban fantasy series by New York Times bestselling author Daniel José Older “Because I'm an inbetweener—and the only one anyone knows of at that—the dead turn to me when something is askew between them and the living. Usually, it's something mundane like a suicide gone wrong or someone revived that shouldn'ta been.” Carlos Delacruz is one of the New York Council of the Dead's most unusual agents—an inbetweener, partially resurrected from a death he barely recalls suffering, after a life that's missing from his memory. He thinks he is one of a kind—until he encounters other entities walking the fine line between life and death. One inbetweener is a sorcerer. He's summoned a horde of implike ngks capable of eliminating spirits, and they're spreading through the city like a plague. They've already taken out some of NYCOD's finest, leaving Carlos desperate to stop their master before he opens up the entrada to the Underworld—which would destroy the balance between the living and the dead. But in uncovering this man's identity, Carlos confronts the truth of his own life—and death.…

In this courageous, inventive, irreverent, and shrewd novel, Viola Di Grado tells the story of a suicide and what follows. She gives voice to an astonishing vision of life after life, portraying the awful longing and sense of loss that plague the dead, together with the solitude provoked by the impossibility of communicating. The afterlife itself is seen as a dark, seething place where one is preyed upon by the cruel and unrelenting elements. Hollow Heart will frighten as it provokes, enlighten as it causes concern. If ever there were a novel that follows Kafka's prescription for a book to be an axe for the frozen sea within us, it is Hollow Heart.In this, Di Grado's second novel after 70% Acrylic 30% Wool, the twenty-seven-year-old prodigy gives proof of her reputation as a singular and explosive talent.

Ithell Colquhoun (1906–1988) is remembered today as a surrealist artist, writer, and occultist. Although her paintings hang in a number of public collections and her gothic novel Goose of Hermogenes (1961) remains in print, critical responses to her work have been severely constrained by the limited availability of her art and writings. The publication of her second novel, I Saw Water—presented here for the first time, together with a selection of her other writings and images, many also previously unpublished—marks a significant step in expanding our knowledge of Colquhoun's work. Composed almost entirely of material assembled from the author's dreams, I Saw Water challenges such fundamental distinctions as those between sleeping and waking, the two separated genders, and life and death. It is set in a convent on the Island of the Dead, but its spiritual context derives from sources as varied as Roman Catholicism, the teachings of the Theosophical Society, Goddess spirituality, Druidism, the mystical Qabalah, and Neoplatonism.The editors have provided both an introduction and explanatory notes. The introductory essay places the novel in the context of Colquhoun's other works and the cultural and spiritual environment in which she lived. The extensive notes will help the reader with any concepts that may be unfamiliar.

Everything changes when a handsome stranger rides off into the night on Dusty's horse There's no way around it: Dusty's horse Tazz needs to be put down. Once a champion jumper, Tazz can barely walk now due to hoof pain. And that's not the only thing that's wrong in Dusty's life. Since her mother's death, Dusty's dad hasn't stopped drinking—even after his drunk driving put Dusty in the hospital with a now-chronic back injury. Why don't they just put me down too? she wonders. While Dusty is giving Tazz one last grooming, his ears suddenly prick up as a stranger approaches: a young boy with an otherworldly beauty. He offers to take Tazz with him, and the two race off into the distance as though Tazz were in perfect health, with the boy perched on his back. Who could this person be? And what is he doing here? It's only when Dusty returns to school the next day that she hears about the boy who was killed. When she sees his photo in the newspaper, she knows that he's the mysterious guy who rode off on Tazz. What she doesn't know is that he will soon return.

All Dave Miller wanted to do was commit suicide in peace. He tried, but the things that happened after he'd pulled the trigger were all wrong. Like everyone standing around like statues. No St. Peter, no pearly gate, no pitchforks or halos. He might just as well have saved the bullet!

Eddie is a wounded war veteran, an old man who has lived, in his mind, an uninspired life. His job is fixing rides at a seaside amusement park. On his 83rd birthday, a tragic accident kills him, as he tries to save a little girl from a falling cart. He awakes in the afterlife, where he learns that heaven is not a destination. It's a place where your life is explained to you by five people, some of whom you knew, others who may have been strangers. One by one, from childhood to soldier to old age, Eddie's five people revisit their connections to him on earth, illuminating the mysteries of his'meaningless'life, and revealing the haunting secret behind the eternal question:'Why was I here?'

The Writers Afterlife is the story of Tom Chillo, a 44-year-old writer on the verge of fame, who suddenly dies of a stroke and finds himself transported to a place where all writers are sent after they die. After mingling with “The Eternals” — including Shakespeare, Wilde, Keats, and Tolstoy — he discovers that his true peers in this new world are all haunted by the same regret: they never achieved the fame they felt they deserved during their lifetime. There's still a chance, though. Every writer has the opportunity to return to earth for exactly one week and convince someone to set the wheels in motion to give their life's work widespread notoriety. The trick is to come up with the perfect plan the first time. Failure is not an option. The Writers Afterlife is brimming with warm humor, New York street sensibility, and an underlying commentary about the drive for fame in contemporary culture. With a deft hand, Vetere explores the deceptions that people employ to achieve at all costs. A string of eccentric New York characters fly off the page and make for a striking, memorable book that is a delight to read.

It's been four years since seventeen-year-old Mitchell Johnson was hit by a bus and inexplicably ended up in the Underworld. Hell is miserable, but Mitchell knows things could be worse. After all, he has the coveted job of The Devil's intern--plus three close friends who keep him from dwelling too much on his untimely demise. Still, he'd rather be living. So when Mitchell discovers that his boss is in possession of a legendary time-travel mechanism called a Viciseometer, he starts forming a plan. With a device like that, Mitchell realizes, he could escape Hell, revisit his death, and prevent it altogether. Getting his hands on the device turns out to be easy. But preventing his friends from accompanying him--and protecting them from whatever it is that's stalking them through time--is going to be impossible.

May Bird has always been a bit... different. While most of her classmates were riding their bikes, she was running around the West Virginia woods, dressed as a warrior princess with her hairless cat at her side. And while most of her classmates were spending their summer vacations going to birthday parties, May was discovering a mysterious lake hidden among the trees -- and stumbling into the land of ghosts, the Ever After. A fearful and fantastic realm located among the stars, the Ever After is full of phantoms and poltergeists, ghouls and goblins, and all manner of things that go bump in the night. And if May is to find her way out again, she must reach the mysterious Lady of North Farm, who lives in a cold, forbidding land that even the spooks find spooky. With her courageous (yet melancholy) kitty and a ragtag group of spectral friends she's picked up along the way, May is determined to escape the Afterlife. But her travels will bring her face-to-face with her worst fears: a devious pursuer; a truly horrifying dance party under the sea, hosted by the Bogey (aka Boogie) Man; and the Ever After's terrible ruler, Evil Bo Cleevil. And when all of these things collide, there's no telling who will find courage to make it through... or who will be left behind.

In Book 3 in the Shadowlands trilogy, will Rory go to hell and back to save her family?Rory Miller didn't just fall in love with Tristan Parrish. She fell in love with the idea of forever. He was the one who told her the truth about her existence in Juniper Landing: that her mortal life is over, and she will now spend eternity on the island, helping others in limbo move on. But like Juniper Landing, a bright island with dark secrets, Tristan is too good to be true. The mysterious, heartbreakingly beautiful boy Rory thought she knew is responsible for unthinkable evil--sending good souls to the Shadowlands in order to get himself a second chance at life on Earth. He has already claimed Rory's friend Aaron and her own father, but when Tristan sends her sister, Darcy, to the Shadowlands, too, Rory decides to take matters into her own hands. She will do anything to save her family, even if it means going to hell and back.

Imagine a place where the dead rest on shelves like books. Each body has a story to tell, a life seen in pictures that only Librarians can read. The dead are called Histories, and the vast realm in which they rest is the Archive. Last summer, Mackenzie Bishop, a Keeper tasked with stopping violent Histories from escaping the Archive, almost lost her life to one. Now, as she starts her junior year at Hyde School, she's struggling to get her life back. But moving on isn't easy – not when her dreams are haunted by what happened. She knows the past is past, knows it cannot hurt her, but it feels so real, and when her nightmares begin to creep into her waking hours, she starts to wonder if she's really safe. Meanwhile, people are vanishing without a trace, and the only thing they seem to have in common is Mackenzie. She's sure the Archive knows more than they are letting on, but before she can prove it, she becomes the prime suspect. And unless Mac can track down the real culprit, she'll lose everything, not only her role as Keeper, but her memories, and even her life. Can Mackenzie untangle the mystery before she herself unravels? With stunning prose and a captivating mixture of action, romance, and horror, The Unbound delves into a richly imagined world where no choice is easy and love and loss feel like two sides of the same coin.

A cosmic storm reunites a father with his lost son—but another kind of disturbance awaits them—in this science fiction novel with “a real emotional core” (Publishers Weekly). Thomas Pendleton loves his wife, Ann, and six-year-old son, Seth, more than anything, but his job often makes him an absent husband and father. One day, after Thomas leaves on a business trip, his wife and son are killed in a car accident. Thomas shuts himself off from the world and is at home grieving when a cosmic storm enters Earth's atmosphere. Scientists are baffled by its composition and origins, but not nearly as much as they are by the storm's side effect: Anyone who has died and chosen not to cross over is suddenly visible and can interact with the living. Ann does not return, but Seth does, and Thomas sees it as a miraculous second chance to spend time with his son and keep the promises he had previously broken. They set out on a trip to the Air and Space Museum in Washington, DC, but little do they know that they are traveling headlong into a social and political maelstrom that will test Thomas in ways he could never imagine. Along the way, they come face to face with armed kidnappers who want Seth for his supernatural abilities, meet up with a medium, the ghost of a slave boy, and encounter none other than Abraham Lincoln. Citing an overpopulation problem caused by the “Impalpables,” the government begins to take drastic measures. Military scientists have a device called the Tesla Gate that is said to return “Impals” to where they were before the storm. Many have nicknamed the controversial machine “the shredder” because no one really knows if it will do what it is reputed to, or if it will instead shred the Impals—effectively destroying the soul. Thomas is determined to do everything possible to save Seth, or at the very least, ensure that Seth doesn't have to endure his sentence alone...

The angel sat studying them all, then he began,'Each one of you here will be inspected on your earthly life, just like the tests you did at school. At this point in the proceedings you will remember the years you lived and how you lived them.'''The Artful Dodgems', a young street crew decide to deface some monuments in their local cemetery. Little do they know, a skeleton is watching them and it decides to make them pay for their sins.Bootlegger, The Artful Dodgems'newest member is the first to pay and is soon followed by his fellow gang members. They are picked off one by one, sent to a'middle ground'between Heaven and Hell while they are shown the consequences of their actions and are judged on their life on Earth. Where they end up, and what happens next is up to them…This book was written on my fathers flippant word'I bet theses graves have some stories to tell'.

Six characters from history enter the Devil's labyrinth Robert Lath dies in the trenches of World War One. But he wakes to find himself on a never-ending flight of stone steps. No matter how hard he tries, he cannot reach the top or bottom. Then a face appears and offers him a choice; a choice that might damn his soul. Six characters from different spans of history battle against illness, seemingly the result of a game with Satan, and human frailty to find salvation but are they all the same man? A soul is trapped and gradually dissected in this intriguing and labyrinthine story of trust, betrayal, disease, death and immortality. Sample During Judicial Trial by Combat, the husband had killed his wife, who had been contesting her claim to property paid for with her dowry. Sébastien needed to organise a knightly contest to calm his nerves; seeing the arm of a woman, lying separated from her kneeling, screaming form, affronted his senses. In the meadow beyond the castle keep's moat, he ordered an arena to be laid out. He had a small pavilion erected beside the long, rectangular arena and two seats placed upon a plinth, under the awning. To either side, long benches were arranged to seat the behinds of all his retinue and visiting friends. Jousts were not yet established as a formal ritual and Sébastien simply wanted to hold a tournament of the training practice his knights carried out regularly. He encouraged the knights to wear brightly-coloured helmet-plumes and overcoats. They each wore a shield with his emblazon; quartered black and white with four blue bosses. The visiting knights had been instructed to wear their own colours.

An absorbing novel of romance and revolution, loyalty and family, sacrifice and undying loveWe have three souls, or so I'd been told. But only in death could I confirm this....So begins the haunting and captivating tale, set in 1935 China, of the ghost of a young woman named Leiyin, who watches her own funeral from above and wonders why she is being denied entry to the afterlife. Beside her are three souls—stern and scholarly yang; impulsive, romantic yin; and wise, shining hun—who will guide her toward understanding. She must, they tell her, make amends.As Leiyin delves back in time with the three souls to review her life, she sees the spoiled and privileged teenager she once was, a girl who is concerned with her own desires while China is fractured by civil war and social upheaval. At a party, she meets Hanchin, a captivating left-wing poet and translator, and instantly falls in love with him.When Leiyin defies her father to pursue Hanchin, she learns the harsh truth—that she is powerless over her fate. Her punishment for disobedience leads to exile, an unwanted marriage, a pregnancy, and, ultimately, her death. And when she discovers what she must do to be released from limbo into the afterlife, Leiyin realizes that the time for making amends is shorter than she thought.Suffused with history and literature, Three Souls is an epic tale of revenge and betrayal, forbidden love, and the price we are willing to pay for freedom.

Este ebook presenta'El retrato de Dorian Gray', con un sumario dinámico y detallado. Se trata de una novela que escribió Oscar Wilde, publicada en 1890. Se considera una de las últimas obras clásicas de la novela de terror gótica con una fuerte temática faustiana. La novela cuenta la historia de un joven llamado Dorian Gray, retratado por el artista Basilio Hallward, quien queda enormemente impresionado por la belleza física de Dorian y comienza a encapricharse con él, creyendo que esta belleza es la responsable de la nueva forma de su arte. Dorian conoce a Lord Henry Wotton, un amigo de Basil, y empieza a cautivarse por la visión del mundo de Lord Henry. Exponiendo un nuevo tipo de hedonismo, Lord Henry indica que'lo único que vale la pena en la vida es la belleza, y la satisfacción de los sentidos'. Al darse cuenta de que un día su belleza se desvanecerá, Dorian desea tener siempre la edad de cuando le pintó en el cuadro Basil. El deseo de Dorian se cumple, mientras él mantiene para siempre la misma apariencia del cuadro, la figura en él retratada envejece por él. Oscar Wilde (1854 - 1900) fue un escritor, poeta y dramaturgo irlandés. Wilde es considerado uno de los dramaturgos más destacados del Londres victoriano tardío; además, fue una celebridad de la época debido a su gran y aguzado ingenio. Hoy en día, es recordado por sus epigramas, sus obras de teatro y la tragedia de su encarcelamiento, seguida de su temprana muerte.

“Sure to tickle the funny bone and satisfy the taste for some gruesome adventure while appealing to both girls and boys. A fun read.” —School Library JournalSomething mysterious and terrible is happening throughout Victorian London: Ghosts are disap­pearing. When this reaches the attention of the Ghost Bureau, the diligent but clueless Mr. Lapsewood, a paranormal paper-pusher, is sent to investigate, and what he discovers is grave. The Black Rot has arrived—a voracious spiritual infestation whereby empty haunted houses suck in unsuspecting ghosts and imprison them. Lapsewood's investigation weaves through the stories of several other memorable characters—living and dead—including an undertaker's son who can see ghosts, a serial throat-slasher reminiscent of Jack the Ripper, an evangelical exorcist, and many more. The living and dead must work together if they hope to destroy the Black Rot—before it destroys both the ghost and human worlds. “Jones has crafted a menacing, spooky Victorian London full of criminals and unfinished business, which is well balanced by the biting satire and buffoonery of the Bureau. Add to that a cast of fascinating, well-wrought characters—from the smarmy and threatening Jack, to the precocious, pot-stirring aspiring journalist Clara—and it's a winning combination of macabre atmosphere, whimsical antics, and heartfelt, earnest friendship.” —Booklist (starred review)

The Never is on the brink of destruction by the Lady Walker. Wendy, shorn of her Light by the Reapers, must be the one to save it from the beasts between the worlds. Now no more powerful than an average spirit, Wendy reluctantly strikes a balance between Elise, the new Reaper matriarch, and Jane, a Reaper gone rogue. Torn between her duty to her friends, the Riders, and her duty as the Lightbringer, Wendy must rush to learn the secrets left behind. She must make the ultimate sacrifice to bring the worlds into balance once more... even if it costs her very soul.

In this gripping exploration of a futuristic afterlife, a teen discovers that death is just the beginning.Since her untimely death the day before her eighteenth birthday, Felicia Ward has been trapped in Level 2, a stark white afterlife located between our world and the next. Along with her fellow drones, Felicia passes the endless hours reliving memories of her time on Earth and mourning what she's lost—family, friends, and Neil, the boy she loved. Then a girl in a neighboring chamber is found dead, and nobody but Felicia recalls that she existed in the first place. When Julian—a dangerously charming guy Felicia knew in life—comes to offer Felicia a way out, Felicia learns the truth: If she joins the rebellion to overthrow the Morati, the angel guardians of Level 2, she can be with Neil again. Suspended between Heaven and Earth, Felicia finds herself at the center of an age-old struggle between good and evil. As memories from her life come back to haunt her, and as the Morati hunt her down, Felicia will discover it's not just her own redemption at stake… but the salvation of all mankind.

Two enthralling novels by Robert Silverberg about a future in which the minds of the living can be changed for a price—often with dire consequencesIn To Live Again, thanks to the Scheffing Institute, death is not the end. For a hefty fee, the soul bank stores the personas of those who have died and inserts them into the brains of willing, living hosts. It's a process that integrates the two minds, imbuing the host with a menu of highly valuable abilities, memories, and traits. The more personas one absorbs, the greater his social status. When banking mogul Paul Kaufmann dies, many people apply to receive his persona. The leading applicants—his bitter business rivals—are locked in a battle to claim his soul. The Institute follows strict rules to ensure that the host always remains in control, but of course accidents do happen... In The Second Trip, Paul Macy wears the Rehab badge, the sign of healing that advertises his status as a reconstruct job. When society derides capital punishment and opts, instead, for personality rehabilitation, criminals undergo mindpick operations in which their identities are stripped and extinguished. Given a new bank of memories and a fresh identity, they are offered a second chance at life. For Paul, though, this gift comes with a price. His former self still lingers inside him, waiting for the opportunity to emerge and battle Paul's new self for ultimate control. This ebook features an illustrated biography of Robert Silverberg including rare images and never-before-seen documents from the author's personal collection.

The sixth installment of David Wingrove's director's cut of his epic vision of the futureIt is 2206. As Chung Kuo's population continues to swell, the Seven—the ruling T'angs—are forced to make further concessions, laws must be relaxed and the House at Weinmar reopened. Change is coming, whether the Seven like it or not. The tides of unrest unleashed by earlier wars grow faster even than the population. DeVore secretly allies with newly appointed general, Hans Ebert. It seems that DeVore's plans are coming to fruition. But Ebert has his own schemes and plots—he intends to depose the Seven and control the whole of Chung Kuo. Includes more than 30 pages of character listing and Mandarin glossary.

Four bestselling authors. One hellraising premise. What if the dead could be summoned from their graves—for a price? What if a quartet of distinctive storytellers took a stab at this deceptively simple idea—on a dare? The answers lie here, in Four Summoner's Tales, as these acclaimed writers accept the challenge and rise to the occasion—in four brilliantly chilling ways. It's all in the execution...“SUFFER THE CHILDREN” BY KELLEY ARMSTRONG, #1 New York Times bestselling authorA preacher and his adopted daughter must solve the mystery of the newcomers to their isolated 19th century village—men who are preying on residents'overwhelming grief with promises to bring the stricken back to life.“PIPERS” BY CHRISTOPHER GOLDEN, New York Times bestselling authorTwenty-three people have already lost their lives to the ruthless cartel terrorizing their small Texas border town. But one man has a plan for revenge, if the town's survivors will let him use their loved ones—to raise an army of the undead.“A BAD SEASON FOR NECROMANCY” BY DAVID LISS, National bestselling author In merry old England, a rascally con man stumbles upon a book for raising the dead. But instead of using it to make money by reviving relatives for the rich, he'll do just the opposite. Because some family skeletons need to stay buried.“ALIVE DAY” BY JONATHAN MABERRY, New York Times bestselling author In war-torn Afghanistan, a U.S. military operative and his team face off against an ancient horror during a harrowing off-the-books search-and-rescue mission.

Lex, a teenage Grim Reaper, has the power to Damn souls, and it's getting out of control. Her boyfriend, Driggs, is dead... sort of. She's a fugitive, on the run from the maniacal new mayor of Croak and the townspeople who want to see her pay the price for her misdeeds. Uncle Mort rounds up the Junior Grims to flee Croak once again, but this time they're joined by Grotton, the most powerful Grim of all time. Their new mission is clear: Fix his mistakes, or the Afterlife will cease to exist, along with all the souls in it. The gang heads for Necropolis, the labyrinth-like capital city of the Grimsphere. There, they discover that the Grimsphere needs a reboot. To do that, the portals to the Afterlife must be destroyed... but even that may not be enough to fix the damage. Things go from bad to worse, and when at last the fate of the Afterlife and all the souls of the Damned hang in the balance, it falls to Lex and her friends to make one final, impossible choice.

Lucifer's fall was decided on the toss of a coin, but he agrees to go only if one day he can return to Paradise and Gabriel take his place in Hell. The coin is buried, with the agreement that when it is discovered, the swap will take place...

Imagine a place where the dead rest on shelves like books. Each body has a story to tell– a life seen in pictures that only Librarians can read. The dead are called Histories, and the vast realm in which they rest is the Archive. Da first brought Mackenzie Bishop here four years ago, when she was twelve years old, frightened but determined to prove herself. Now Da is dead, and Mac has grown into what he once was: a ruthless Keeper, tasked with stopping often-violent Histories from waking up and getting out. Because of her job, she lies to the people she loves, and she knows fear for what it is: a useful tool for staying alive. Being a Keeper isn't just dangerous-it's a constant reminder of those Mac has lost. Da's death was hard enough, but now that her little brother is gone too, Mac starts to wonder about the boundary between living and dying, sleeping and waking. In the Archive, the dead must never be disturbed. And yet, someone is deliberately altering Histories, erasing essential chapters. Unless Mac can piece together what remains, the Archive itself might crumble and fall. In this haunting, richly imagined novel, Victoria Schwab reveals the thin lines between past and present, love and pain, trust and deceit, unbearable loss and hardwon redemption. Advance praise for THE ARCHIVED:'This gripping supernatural thriller features nuanced characters navigating a complex moral universe.'?Kirkus Reviews