Does Death have more power over us than we have have over Death? This is the question Carroll tries to answer in this great book.

When we near the ends of our lives, sometimes Death allows us to ask questions of him, but beware what you ask because if you don't understand the answer it will cost you... and, possibly the people around you. This is the story of Ian McGann, a travel agent from London; Wyatt, aka Finky Linky the TV clown of children's hearts; Sophie, the widow and best friend of Wyatt who drags him to Europe as he is dying of leukemia; Arlen Ford, the retired actress who left her career at it's peak to live in Vienna; Rose, her best friend; Sophie's brother and sister-in-law. Death enters their lives in different ways and it comes around full circle as their stories intertwine when a photojournalist takes a break from Yugoslavia and visits Vienna and leads to the understanding of who we really are.

Carroll's prose brings these peoples' lives into your life and as is usually the case with his books, we leave with a new insight to ourselves. ( )

I've enjoyed all of Jonathan Carroll's books. He's one of the very best writers working in "urban fantasy" or "magic realism" or however else you want to label good fantasy that's well-written and has no unicorns. And this is one of his best, and darkest, books. Very disturbing and sad at a primal level--it will haunt you. ( )

To be honest anything by Carroll deserves to be read and he really is one of my favorites. This was a very satisfying tale that that’s basically told from the point of view of two characters that tackles questions of life and death. A great novel. ( )

http://www.engel-cox.org/text/from_th... ( )