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At once obsessively readable, philosophically probing, and verbally acrobatic, The Life of the World to Come announces Dan Cluchey as a fresh new voice in fiction.
Leo Brice is dead, in a sense (not the traditional one). When the neurotic law student meets his cosmic match in Fiona Haeberle, an impulsive spirit and burgeoning soap star, all seems well - the two fall fast in love, and spend three years navigating their twenties in wide-eyed wonder.
But once the fantastical woman who had defined his future bolts to pursue a fantasy life of her own, Leo is forced to come to terms with a reality that more closely resembles an epilogue than the story he'd hoped it might be. Now a junior death row advocate, Leo immerses himself in the esoteric world of his condemned client, a born-again Georgia inmate named Michael Tiegs.
As both men become consumed by the question of an afterlife - and as Leo becomes increasingly confused by his own future and past - Tiegs' fate hangs in the balance. Leaning on his friends and grappling with his memories, Leo must try to save a client who may not want to be saved after all, even as he struggles to confront the prospect of his own mortality.
"Featuring a dog named Rafael Uribe Uribe, this debut novel stays quirky even as it considers the big questions." - Library Journal
"Both timeless and timely ... a terrifically distilled love story." - Hannah Pittard, author of Reunion
"In these pages you'll find a wonderful gift, an engrossing story as hugely entertaining as it is genuinely insightful. Cluchey is a true wordsmith, possessing a whiplash inducing wit coupled with a talent for crafting beautiful moments that stop you still and demand to be savored." - Bradley Somer, author of Fishbowl
"The Life of the World to Come is like a strike across the jaw after you've fainted: it braces and wakes you. And just when you think you've found your bearings, it fells you once again. Dan Cluchey has written a smart, weird, heartful book that will whisper to you long after you've put it down." - Lindsay Hunter, author of Ugly Girls
"Smart, sad and crackling with wit, The Life of the World to Come is a book about love, life and what happens after. Cluchey captures the exquisite longing of youthful heartbreak with deep feeling and rich detail." - Christopher Noxon, author of Plus One
This information about The Life of the World to Come was first featured
in "The BookBrowse Review" - BookBrowse's membership magazine, and in our weekly "Publishing This Week" newsletter. Publication information is for the USA, and (unless stated otherwise) represents the first print edition. The reviews are necessarily limited to those that were available to us ahead of publication. If you are the publisher or author and feel that they do not properly reflect the range of media opinion now available, send us a message with the mainstream reviews that you would like to see added.
Any "Author Information" displayed below reflects the author's biography at the time this particular book was published.
Dan Cluchey is a native of Portland, Maine, and a former Obama Administration speechwriter and advisor. During his time in Washington, he wrote hundreds of speeches and op-eds on behalf of senior leaders throughout the Administration, on topics ranging from healthcare reform to international trade. A graduate of Amherst College and Harvard Law School, he lives in New Haven, CT. The Life of the World to Come is his first novel.
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