the brief history of the dead

I found this book while sorting through our leftover boxes at my parents' house in NC. It was Tim's and he never read it, but I found the title intriguing and without any other reading material on hand, I decided to give it a try. It was good from the very first page. It's part end-of-the-world disaster theory, part living dead/twilight zone, part Antarctic adventure. There are some beautiful passages in the book, and I like Brockmeier's interpretation of the dead and afterlife. This book (like the last three I read, weird) is told by several different characters, some more well-developed and more interesting and more alive than the others...I skimmed through a couple of chapters because the character was annoying. There is a little suspense/eeriness that kept me going too, although it doesn't lead to the big movie-production revelation of an ending that I wanted. I won't tell you what actually happens, but I do recommend that you read it yourself and find out.