In The Book of the After, Rebecca Higgie gives us a book that’s difficult to define by genre, hard to summarise, and sometimes challenging to read. It’s also deeply rewarding, memorable, and absorbing. I loved it.
In 2049, “The Book of the After” is a cult classic – a book supposedly written by the dead, letting people know what happens after death. Not everyone believes that what it says is true, but even the doubters find it hard to shake.
Negus Kebede is one of those doubters. He wanted a quiet life as an academic, teaching literature and treasuring the love of his life. But events push him in other directions; we meet him as a person who’s suffered great losses and been pushed into a life he didn’t want. Others see his leadership and good qualities; he wonders what he is without his love.
If the Book is true, then Negus could yet be reunited with his love. But unknown to him, one of the dead is haunting him, hoping to change the destinies of Negus, Australia, and the world.
It is really, really hard to give you a good indication of the plot without also handing you spoilers. This is an expansive novel, crossing eras and countries, sprawling across the years and multiple lives, and with multiple points of view. Negus’s story is unpacked gradually and in a way that holds surprises all through the novel. Your understanding of what’s going on will change frequently.
This is a love story, and a fantasy, with a dash of science fiction, side ventures into historical fiction, and a (kind of) time travel novel. There are elements of sub-genres (like environmental dystopia). I found it impossible to categorise, and the novel is the stronger for it: life doesn’t have tidy lines, and nor does this story.
Strong characters carry readers through the tangled plot until all comes clear. Readers will invest in multiple characters. I felt genuine anguish for more than one of them. The final impression of this novel is neither sad nor depressing, but Higgie evokes the full range of emotions on behalf of her characters as we travel through the story.
This is a novel that unfolds gradually, and in unexpected ways. I found it took me a while to settle into it, but once connections between the characters began to emerge, I was hooked. It’s worth persevering through the first dozen chapters – they’re short, I promise! Although it took a bit longer than many novels to grab me, it was ultimately one of the most rewarding I’ve read.
I highly recommend this – it’ll make you work a bit, but this is a novel that will also make you feel a lot, and which is likely to stay with you for a long time.
A selection of our Beauty and Lace Club Members are reading The Book of the After by Rebecca Higgie. You can read their comments below, or add your own review.
I’ve loved books for as long as I can remember, and I love sharing that joy.
I’ve been an avid reader for as long as I can remember, across all genres. There’s not much I won’t at least try. I’ve been an enthusiastic book reviewer for years. I particularly enjoy discovering writers new to me, and sharing good writing with others.
My career has included time spent writing and editing technical documents, but it’s fiction that really moves me. I’ve reviewed for a number of different outlets over the years, and have been a judge in literary competitions.
I’m now raising little bookworms of my own, which brings a whole new kind of joy to sharing books.
More of my reviews can be found on my review blog www.otherdreamsotherlives.home.blog .
Upon starting this book, it did take me a while to wonder what I was actually reading. It seemed to be fiction and also before and after but on reading more, I did notice historical features.
I came to realise that the storyline is also a book on what happens when we die and it is all incorporated in how lives are shaped for the living.
There is a love story within this book of Characters Negus & Eleanor, and it was them that had me wanting to keep reading to see what happens. Eleanor is a Prime Minister and Negus is her Deputy. There is of course Political talk in the book, and I did notice mentions of the Voice Referendum, the black summer fires and climate change.
There is also a character called Guy in the book with his own storyline.
In the book there are some gruesome details of someone’s life which had me squirming a little.
As I was reading, the storyline is a look into the future of Australia, which in itself is a bit scarey.
To me this novel was like fiction, romance and historical all entwined in the huge read of 540 pages.
Thank you to Beauty and Lace and Freemantle Press for sending me this book to read. It certainly opened my eyes.