Elsewhere

Zevin, Gabrielle

3.91

61,130 ratings by Goodreads

ISBN 10: 0756981913 ISBN 13: 9780756981914

Publisher: Turtleback Books, 2007

Welcome to Elsewhere. It is warm, with a breeze, and the beaches are marvelous. It's quiet and peaceful. You can't get sick or any older. Curious to see new paintings by Picasso? Swing by one of Elsewhere's museums. Need to talk to someone about your problems? Stop by Marilyn Monroe's psychiatric practice. Elsewhere is where fifteen-year-old Liz Hall ends up, after she has died. 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? This moving, often funny book about grief, death, and loss will stay with the reader long after the last page is turned.

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About the Author:

Gabrielle Zevin is the author of award-winning books for young adults including Memoirs of a Teenage Amnesiac, and books for adults including The Hole We're In and Margarettown. She was also the screenwriter for Conversations with Other Women, which received an Independent Spirit Award nomination. Of her writing, The New York Times Book Review said, "Zevin's touch is marvelously light even as she considers profundities." A dog lover and Harvard graduate, she lives in New York City.

From Elsewhere

"It can be particularly difficult for young people to realize they are dead," Aldous says.

"Why is that?"

"Young people tend to think they're immortal. Many of them can't conceive of themselves as dead, Elizabeth."

Aldous proceeds to go through all the things Liz would have to do in the next several months. Dying seems to entail a great deal more work than Liz initially thought. In a way, dying isn't that different from school.

"Have you put any thought into an avocation?" Aldous asks her.

Liz shrugs. "Not really. I didn't really have a job on Earth, because I was still in school.'

"Oh no no no," Aldous says, "an avocation is not a job. A job has to do with prestige! Money! An avocation is something a person does to make their soul complete."

Liz rolls her eyes.

"I see by your expression you don't believe me," Aldous says. "It appears I've got a fourteen-year-old cynic on my hands."

"Fifteen," Liz corrects him.

"Is there anything you particularly loved on Earth?"

Liz shrugs.

"Anything, anything at all?"

"Animals, maybe something with animals or dogs," Liz says finally, thinking of her prized pug, Lucy, back on Earth.

"Marvelous!" crows Aldous. "I'm sure I could find you something fabulous to do with dogs!"

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