Gabrielle Zavin - Elsewhere

review by Babs Simpson on show 17th March
This is an extraordinary book and anyone who was swept away by The Book Thief, as I was, will find this equally absorbing and fascinating. It is again about death, but from a totally different perspective. The "Elsewhere" of the title is where one is taken after life on earth ends and is a marvellous place. No matter how old or what the cause of death was, life goes into reverse, illness disappears, mortal wounds heal, and gradually one's age reduces until you become a baby again, to be reborn on earth.
I am sure this sounds ridiculous, but, believe me, it isn't at all. Gabrielle Zevin has written a wonderful novel that I read in two sittings and started to read again as soon as I'd finished it.
The main character is Lizzie, a fifteen-year-old American girl who is knocked off her bike and killed by a hit-and-run driver. She wakes to find herself on a boat on the way to Elsewhere and, of course, hates the idea that she is dead and has been taken from her loving familyand friends on earth.
The story tells of her acceptance of her new condition, the new friends she makes, the grandmother she never met on earth, and the love she finds in Elsewhere. It is uplifting, funny and sometimes sad, but ultimately so very well worth reading that I cannot stress enough how very much I enjoyed it. It's in the Library - please give it a go - you definitely won't regret it. Extraordinary and quite wonderful.

by Babs