The Returned, by Jason Mott

Harlequin – Harlequin MIRA

Publication Date: August 27, 2013

In the long decades since the tragic drowning death of their 8-year old son, Jacob, Harold and Lucille Hargrave’s lives have moved on. There were years of grieving, but although there is a residual sadness, the grace of time has let them come to terms.

Then, one day, Jacob returns. Arrives, without ceremony, on their doorstep. Ironically, it isn’t unexpected because all over the world, the dead are returning to find the people they remembered and loved in life. No one knows what to do about it. No one is sure exactly what the returned are. Alive or some ghastly imitation of life? Have they been to Heaven? Hell? Are they some kind of zombie?

Yet they certainly act alive, remembering nothing since they died, often not even exactly how they died, who or what killed them. For a while, it seems the world is going to explode from the in-rushing of the formerly alive. Is it a miracle? A sign of the end times? Some are sure it’s the work of the Devil, others that it’s the hand of God.

Harold and Lucille don’t know whether this young child is their boy — though he certainly carries all the memories that the real Jacob would have, up until the day of his death. As the world falls into near chaos and hysteria, they know only one thing: they have to protect the child. Whatever he is, he is theirs.

Will the world truly unravel? Will society collapse under the weight of the Returned? Society is faced with some hard questions including the meaning of “alive” and “human.”

Although the plot, in its description, sounds like a horror story or at the very least, science fiction, it isn’t. It’s the examination of how we define ourselves and what it means to be a person. How will human morality in all its variations stand up to a test in which all the standard and accepted definitions fly out the window.

The Returned is also about our relationships with those who have passed on. How we feel about them, making peace with the past, and remembering the importance of loyalty and love when those are the only values that matter … and exactly the values being put to the test.

The book is beautifully written. Elegant, spare, emotional but not sentimental. It examines feelings and fears … and the truth of memory. The Returned is a thought-provoking, sometimes frightening … sometimes comforting … look at our relationship with death and with each other. Whatever you are expecting, it isn’t that. It’s something else and I don’t know exactly what one should call it except a very good book.

The Returned will be available as of August 27, 2013, on Kindle, as an MP3, in both hard and softcopy, and as an audiobook (audible.com).

About the author:

Jason Mott holds a BA in fiction and an MFA in poetry and is the author of two poetry collections. His writing has appeared in numerous literary journals, and he was nominated for the 2009 Pushcart Prize. Jason lives in North Carolina. The Returned is his first novel. Follow him on Twitter @jasonmott.

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Categories: #Writing, Arts, Book Review, Books, Ethics and Philosophy, Fiction, Literature, Love, Magic, Publishing, Sci Fi - Fantasy - Time Travel, Supernatural

Tags: Book Review, death and dying, Fiction, Jason Mott, life and death, love, love and deat, new books, novel, postaday, Pushcart Prize, The Returned