Leaving This Life Behind - Softcover

Levine, Howard

Softcover

ISBN 10: 088739261X ISBN 13: 9780887392610

Publisher: Creative Arts Book Co, 2000

Leaving This Life Behind explores the existence of the afterlife and the complicated, tenuous connections between the deceased and the living. The story is narrated, in alternating chapters, by Sharon Galdoni and her husband Paul. Sharon dies in a car crash in the first chapter and describes her new "improved" life in the hereafter. The improvement comes at a cost, a lingering grief over her separation from her three-year-old son Kenny. Sharon's self-absorbed husband Paul isn't attending adequately to the boy's upbringing. Kenny's nursery school teacher, Cheryl, responds to the boy's need for nurturing and tutors him. An affair ensues between Paul and Cheryl, a relationship that creates additional strain between Paul and his bereaved mother and sister-in-law. Conflict with the in-;aws over Kenny's rearing and the child's near-fatal poisoning lead to the novel's unexpectedly joyous ending.

"synopsis" may belong to another edition of this title.

About the Author:

Howard Levine grew up in the Bronx. He has a Masters in Special Education and a BA in English [Writing]. Levine lives in Washington, DC with his wife and children.

"How long have I been dead?" I am given the answer even before the question is fully elaborated inside of me. Unlike what I had experienced with the people who'd attempted to rescue me, communication with the Being of Light is effortless, spontaneous...and blissful. My former body now seems to have been a shroud, hiding this lovely brilliance. Impossibly, the Being of Light becomes more dazzling, as if manifesting my joy at the answer: I am not dead. Nothing really dies. But I've passed into another state of existence, from which my previous life can be seen more clearly.

"About this title" may belong to another edition of this title.