“An amazing novel” that plunges into the all-too-gray area between the public and private in contemporary American life (Los Angeles Times Book Review). Michael Tolkin’s acclaimed second novel, Among the Dead, is an arresting examination of public and private grief in the wake of unspeakable disaster, a slow-burning tour de force of psychological fiction. When Frank Gale writes a passionate letter to his wife confessing an affair, he hopes all can be forgiven on the warm beaches of Mexico. But the farewell kiss of his girlfriend causes him to miss the flight carrying his wife and daughter, and when he learns that their plane has crashed in a crowded city, his life changes in the course of seconds. Suddenly one man’s struggle to comprehend his loss becomes consumed in a media circus of legal drama, family quarrels, and public scandal. Tolkin is a masterful chronicler of contemporary America, and Among the Dead is “fascinating . . . ingenious . . . brilliantly sustained . . . full of nasty surprises . . . like Ian McEwan and Martin Amis, Tolkin portrays the squalid downside of life very well” (San Francisco Chronicle). “Startlingly original . . . morbidly amusing . . . truly terrifying.” —Allen Barra, Los Angeles Times Book Review

Publisher Description

In a fort on the edge of civilization, an ancient evil has awoken Ten years after the Demon War, the wounds of the Forest Kingdom are finally beginning to heal. Deep in the Darkwood, on the border between two long-feuding territories, a fort has been erected to keep the peace. But a month ago, the soldiers inside stopped speaking to the outside world. Have they come under attack, or is something more sinister at work? Led by the adventure-hungry warrior Duncan MacNeil, a party of Rangers is sent to investigate. With a witch, a swordsman, and a powerful eight-fingered woman at his side, MacNeil steps into the deserted fort—and discovers a massacre. The gory scene suggests that the soldiers turned on one other, but the witch has an alternate theory. Beneath this newly built fort, she senses an ancient evil, a power older than the Kingdom itself, about to trap them in the dark.

An Educator’s Guide is now available to assist those teaching about the Holocaust by using the book, Living among the Dead. The Guide can be used chapter by chapter to enhance the student’s understanding of the narrative. There are multiple suggestions and lessons to take us deeper into the history of the Holocaust and this story of strength, family love, community solidarity, and Jewish history.

Ana is a Korean American who travels to Seoul in 1975 to retrieve her recently deceased father's ashes. Luke is a young American soldier fighting in the jungles of Myanmar in 1944. Number Four is the name of a Korean comfort woman camping out on a bridge in Seoul in 1950, waiting for the return of the young American soldier who fathered her daughter. Three separate time periods collide in a small hotel room in Korea, mediated by a shape-shifting Jesus who first shows up as a bellboy. Among the Dead is a dark comedy about a family broken apart by betrayed promises, and finding each other again through SPAM, journals, and Jesus. Mostly Jesus.

Lisa Williams is one of the world's most accurate mediums. Taught by her grandmother both on this plane and in the afterlife, her extraordinary gift for communicating with Spirit and those that have passed on has led her from humble origins to become one of America's most beloved TV stars as the host of "Life Among the Dead". Her incredible story to find acceptance both from those she cared about and the strangers who came to her for help led to the development of abilities that have been described as always accurate and often unbelievable: • Communicating with those that have passed over • Predicting life events • Diagnosing disease • Sensing cheating husbands!

Michelle Williams is young and attractive, she has close family ties as well as a busy social life - but she is far from usual. She is a mortuary technician and her job involves dealing with those things in life that many people do not wish to experience directly. Yet life in the mortuary is neither gruesome nor sad. Told with good humour and common sense, we are introduced to a host of characters - the pathologists, many of them eccentric, some downright mad; the undertakers, the hospital porters and the man from the coroner's office who sings to Michelle every morning. The incidents too ensure that no two days are ever the same. From the tragic to the hilarious they include: The fitness fanatic who was run over as he did pressups in the road on a dark night The decapitated motorcyclist The guide dog who led his owner on to the railway tracks - and left him there The forty stone man for whom an entire refrigerated lorry had to be hired because he wouldn't fit in the mortuary cooler Over the course of her first year Michelle has to deal with situations and emotions that few of us will ever experience, and does so while retaining a sense of humour and a sense of perspective.

Gunrunner empress Hail Bristol must navigate alien politics and deadly plots to prevent an interspecies war, in this second novel in the Farian War space opera trilogy. In a surprise attack that killed many of her dearest subjects, Hail Bristol, empress of Indrana, has been captured by the Shen -- the most ruthless and fearsome aliens humanity has ever encountered. As she plots her escape, the centuries-long war between her captors and the Farians, their mortal enemies and Indrana's oldest allies, finally comes to a head. When her captors reveal a shocking vision of the future, Hail must make the unexpectedly difficult decision she's been avoiding: whether to back the Shen or the Farians. Staying neutral is no longer an option. Will Hail fight? Or will she fall? Praise for the Farian War trilogy: 'An exciting dose of space opera and political intrigue peppered with hard choices. Highly recommended.' Booklist 'Action and emotion-packed, folding political tension, personal relationships, and trauma into a vivid space opera that does not pull any punches.' Library Journal 'A rare balance of action . . . tension, and quiet moments, keeping pages turning while deepening the portraits of Hail and the friends and foes around her.' Publishers Weekly 'Perfectly executed . . . Science fiction with brains, and a buckload of heart.' The Eloquent Page

Alex Stratton is a successful psychologist, an expert in the field of disturbed sleep. He's haunted by his past, by the part he played in the accidental death of a fellow student ten years before. And now, with the death of two of the other people involved, that past is being brought back to the surface. Is Stratton simply paranoid, paralysed by guilt, or is someone else eliminating all the witnesses?