Elsewhere (novel)

"Elsewhere" (2005) is the title of a young adult book by Gabrielle Zevin.

Plot summary

"Elsewhere" follows the life after death of fifteen year old Elizabeth, also known as Liz. After being hit and killed by Amadou Bonamy's taxi, she finds herself in a place that is both like and unlike earth. In this world, instead of aging, people grow younger until they become infants. There, they are sent to be reborn back on earth. Liz meets her grandmother and a friend, Owen, who guides her through her new life.Liz deeply falls in love with Owen, but when his original wife back on earth dies of the flu, and comes to elsewhere, she is forced to pretend like their love was never even there.

As the story progresses, Liz tries to find forbidden ways to contact her friends and family on earth, hoping to say her proper goodbyes.When her one year anniversary on elsewhere takes place, she sneaks out onto the river where the babies go to be brought back to earth, like elsewhere never even came into her life (or death).Along the way she realizes that she shouldn't just give up the loved ones she met during her death, she tried to rip the bandages the women put on her, but all that did was make her sink. At the bottom of the ocean she struggled to get away from the cloth. Once broken free she swam up to the top of the surface only to find Owen in a boat to come look for her. She was a bit embarrassed because of the fact she was bare naked but at that point the only thing that mattered was Owen and Thier love for each other that could never be hidden.

Towards the end of the book, they age backwards and then Finally its time for liz to make her escape to earth, once again Only this time, for redemption,her second birth.

Awards and nominations

The book was nominated for a 2006 Quill award, won the Borders Original Voices Award, and was a selection of the Barnes and Noble Book Club. [ [http://search.barnesandnoble.com/booksearch/results.asp?CAT=1287891&rv=1 Barnes & Noble.com - Book Search: November -> 2005 Barnes & Noble Book Club Recommendation ] ] The book was also included on several "Best of" Lists including School Library Journal, Horn Book Magazine, Booklist Magazine, Kirkus Reviews, Amazon.com, and the American Library Association Notable Children's Book List among others. It has also won several awards abroad: in Germany, the Lufti (Bronze) and the Ulmer Unke, and in the United Kingdom, the Sheffield Children's Book Prize for Longer Novels, the Stockport Children's Book Award, and it was longlisted for the Carnegie Medal.

Literary significance and reception

"Elsewhere" has been translated into sixteen other languages.

Book reviews

* [http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1G1:143245582/Elsewhere(Book%20Review).html?refid=gg_x_02 Philadelphia Inquirer]
* [http://goliath.ecnext.com/premium/0199/0199-4658069.html "Hornbook Magazine"]
* [http://www.nytimes.com/2005/12/04/books/review/04spires.html?ex=1171170000&en=cca0914cd0a0a9d2&ei=5070 "The New York Times Book Review"]

External links

* [http://www.fsgkidsbooks.com/elsewhere/ Farrar Straus Giroux's "Elsewhere" website]
* [http://www.teenreads.com/authors/au-zevin-gabrielle.asp Teenreads Author Profile]
* [http://www.bloomsbury.com/elsewhere/ Bloomsbury's "Elsewhere" website]
* [http://www.barnesandnoble.com/writers/writer.asp?cid=1034675 Barnes & Noble's Meet the Writers profile]

References