Afterlife
Ratings8
Average rating3.6
Antonia Vega, the immigrant writer at the center of Afterlife, has had the rug pulled out from under her. She has just retired from the college where she taught English when her beloved husband, Sam, suddenly dies. And then more jolts: her bighearted but unstable sister disappears, and Antonia returns home one evening to find a pregnant, undocumented teenager on her doorstep. Antonia has always sought direction in the literature she loves—lines from her favorite authors play in her head like a soundtrack—but now she finds that the world demands more of her than words.
Afterlife is a compact, nimble, and sharply droll novel. Set in this political moment of tribalism and distrust, it asks: What do we owe those in crisis in our families, including—maybe especially—members of our human family? How do we live in a broken world without losing faith in one another or ourselves? And how do we stay true to those glorious souls we have lost?
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Antonia Vega has just retired from her job as a college professor, and her husband has suddenly and unexpectedly died. Her beloved sister, an integral part of the four who form a united and tempestuous sisterhood, is missing. An undocumented immigrant has nowhere to go, and needs Antonia's help. Antonia is used to relying on her steady husband and the quotes from literature she's taught her entire life, but now she is finding she may need to learn some other ways to cope.
A novel full of all the complexities life brings to us—the complex people, the complex situations. It offers no easy answers, no quick solutions, and yet is filled with deep wisdom.
