Elsewhere
From the author of no. 1 bestseller Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow
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4.0 • 3 Ratings
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- $15.99
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- $15.99
Publisher Description
From the acclaimed author of Sunday Times bestseller Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow. A novel of hope, love and redemption in Liz's life after life.
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ONE OF TIME MAGAZINE'S 100 BEST YA BOOKS OF ALL TIME
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"Every so often a book comes along with a premise so fresh and arresting it seems to exist in a category all its own. Elsewhere is such a book" - The New York Times Book Review
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Welcome to Elsewhere. It is warm, with a breeze, and the beaches are beautiful. It's quiet and peaceful. You can't get sick, and you can't get older. In Elsewhere, death is only the beginning...
Elsewhere is where fifteen-year-old Liz Hall ends up, after she is killed in a hit-and-run accident. It is a place so like Earth, yet completely different. Here Liz will age backward from the day of her death until she becomes a baby again and returns to Earth. But Liz wants to turn sixteen, not fourteen again. She wants to get her driver's license. She wants to graduate from high school and go to college. And now that she's dead, Liz is being forced to live a life she doesn't want with a grandmother she has only just met. And it is not going well. How can Liz let go of the only life she has ever known and embrace a new one? Is it possible that a life lived in reverse is no different from a life lived forward?
Full of the most ingenious detail and woven around the most touching and charming relationships, this is a novel of hope, of redemption and rebirth. It is a novel that tells of sadness with heartbreaking honesty, and of love and happiness with uplifting brilliance.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Even readers who have strong views on what happens after death may find themselves intrigued by the fascinating world of "Elsewhere," the place 15-year-old Liz ends up after she is killed in a bicycle accident. A surreal atmosphere permeates chapter one as Liz awakens on a ship (mostly occupied by elderly people), unaware of its destination. Her situation gradually comes into focus after she arrives at the island of Elsewhere and is greeted by her grandmother, who died before Liz was born. Liz learns that the aging process works differently in this land of the dead: instead of getting older, humans (and animals) grow younger. When they reach infancy, they are sent down the River to be reborn on Earth. In other ways, Elsewhere resembles the world Liz left behind; residents work at jobs (although here, everyone has a chance to pursue an "avocation... something a person does to make his or her soul complete"), celebrate holidays and form friendships. Liz also falls in love for the first time, while her grandmother (who has progressed back to her thirties) becomes engaged to a famous rock star; and readers will likely be intrigued by the "strictly forbidden" Well. Prudently skirting the issue of God's role in Elsewhere (when she asks about God, Liz is told simply "God's there in the same way He, She, or It was before to you. Nothing has changed"), Margarettown author Zevin, in her first novel for young people, bends the laws of physics and biology to create an intricately imagined world. Ages 12-up.
