The Brief History of the Dead by Kevin Brockmeier

A virus of terrifying murderousness is sweeping the globe, killing billions, and as each person dies, so the people in the afterlife that they remembered have disappeared too.

When the final person who remembers you passes on then you disappear to no-one knows where, perhaps another afterlife, or perhaps oblivion.īut this city of the dead is threatened, at the same time as all human life on earth is endangered too. While there are still people on earth who remember you then you continue your second life in the city. The idea that the dead live on in our memories is a sentiment often heard at funerals, and here Brockmeier makes it a reality. The issues of their lives, their worries and frustrations come with them- they are the same people they always were, in an unfamiliar city populated by the dead. People carry on, and relationships fail, and pain continues. There are no big answers, no resolutions. This post-life life is a vast city, populated by millions of people who have passed on from our world and who work, live, love and play among its streets and buildings.īrockmeier’s afterlife is oddly mundane. Beyond life in our world there is an afterlife that is effectively a second chance to live again. In the word that Brockmeier builds there is a more than just this flesh-bound existence. This is the central idea around which Kevin Brockmeier has constructed a book of surprising beauty and sadness, a novel different from most of what I read, but rewarding and memorable.įew books stick solidly in my memory.

How many people have you met in your life? How many have you glanced at on the street, seen in a shop, sat opposite and shared a smile with at a concert? Ten thousand? Twenty? Imagine that every person you ever met, ever remembered, has endured after death, kept alive by the power of your memory.

The Brief History of the Dead by Kevin Brockmeier