Next Life Might Be Kinder: A Novel

By: Howard Norman

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Synopsis: This haunting story of love and the aftermath of a murder is &“a complex literary novel and a page-turner that&’s impossible to put down&” (Minneapolis Star-Tribune). Sam Lattimore met Elizabeth Church in an art gallery in 1970s Halifax. But their brief, erotically charged marriage was extinguished with Elizabeth&’s murder. Since that traumatic loss, Sam&’s life has grown complicated. In a moment of desperate confusion, he sells his life story to a Norwegian filmmaker named Istvakson, known for the stylized violence of his films. Soon he comes to regret his decision, leading to an increasingly intense game of cat and mouse between the two men. Furthermore, Sam has begun &“seeing&” Elizabeth—not only seeing but holding conversations with her, almost every evening, and what at first seems simply hallucination born of terrible grief reveals itself, evening by evening, as something else entirely. Next Life Might Be Kinder is a &“riveting&” novel (The Washington Post) by a two-time National Book Award nominee, the acclaimed author of The Bird Artist and What Is Left the Daughter—and features &“an opening sentence worthy of the Noir Hall of Fame&” (The New York Times).