And When I Die

Book excerpt: Pia Vorhees, a widow left with nothing but her husband's secret, unfinished manuscript, is confused. After Hugh's passing, Pia has faced a number of challenges to her ideas of what awaits people after death. The greatest challenge to her beliefs comes from the strange behavior of her granddaughter, Summer. Summer has always reminded Pia of Hugh. Throughout her young life, Summer has displayed idiosyncratic behaviors that are intimately similar to those of her late grandfather. These similarities become far too significant, however, when Summer wins the Nobel Prize in Literature for the book written by her grandfather a book she should never have known about. Pia does not understand how Summer could have known about the manuscript that she had kept secret since Hugh passed two years before Summer was born. She becomes suspicious of Summer and questions her opinions on life, death, and identity. Could Summer be the reincarnation of Hugh, or could he be communicating with her from beyond the grave?