A Novel
by Jaroslav Kalfar
Critics' Opinion:
Readers' rating:
Publishes
Mar 28, 2023
320 pages
Genre: Fantasy, Sci-Fi, Speculative, Alt. History
Publication Information
In this "ingenious, funny, and chilling" novel (Publishers Weekly, starred review) from the author of Spaceman of Bohemia, two long-lost siblings risk everything to save their mother from oblivion in an authoritarian near-future America obsessed with digital consciousness and eternal life—a story that "packs a walloping punch" (Esquire).
When Adéla discovers she has a terminal illness, she leaves behind her native Czech village for a chance at reuniting in America with Tereza, the daughter she gave up at birth, decades earlier. But the country Adéla experienced as a young woman, when she eloped with a filmmaker and starred in his cult sci-fi movie, has changed entirely. In 2030, America is ruled by an authoritarian government increasingly closed off to the rest of the world.
Tereza, the star researcher for VITA, a biotech company hellbent on discovering the key to immortality, is overjoyed to meet her mother, with whom she forms an instant, profound connection. But when their time together is cut short by shocking events, Tereza must uncover VITA's alarming activity in the wastelands of what was once Florida, and persuade the Czech brother she's never met to join her in this odds-defying adventure.
Narrated from the beyond by Adéla's restless spirit, A Brief History of Living Forever is a high-wire act of storytelling from a writer "booming with vitality and originality," whose "voice is distinct enough to leave tread marks" (New York Times). By turns insightful, moving, and funny, the novel not only confirms Jaroslav Kalfař's boundless powers of invention but also exults in the love between a mother and her daughter, which neither space nor time can sever.
"Kalfař (Spaceman of Bohemi) imagines in his ingenious latest a near-future dystopia involving ghastly longevity experiments…. Kalfař draws many funny and chilling connections between Cold War era communist secret police and his imagined future fascist America… With a perceptive satirical slant, sharp humor, and convincing emotion, Kalfař builds a plausibly terrifying world." ―Publisher's Weekly (starred review)
"Kalfar, who moved to the United States from the Czech Republic when he was 15, incorporates both countries in this dystopian, techno-mystery story about life beyond physical death...Kalfar brings his characters to life with almost formal eloquence...he makes the potential power of technology and artificial intelligence a frightening prospect. Both scary science fiction and a bleak nightmare about the end of democracy." ―Kirkus Reviews
"Inventive and heartfelt, this dystopian take on the immigrant experience and the American Dream packs a walloping punch." ―Esquire
"A thoroughly original story from a writer to watch." ―Lit Hub
"A Brief History of Living Forever is a book from the future, here to deliver an urgent story about the present. Extending the speculative logics of Kafka and working in the dreamlike, psychic registers of Philip K. Dick, Kalfař presents an entrancing, lucid, and incisive vision of immortality that starts and ends with the self. This is a brilliant, disorienting, and endlessly fascinating read."―Tom Lin, author of The Thousand Crimes of Ming Tsu
This information about A Brief History of Living Forever was first featured
in "The BookBrowse Review" - BookBrowse's membership magazine, and in our weekly "Publishing This Week" newsletter. Publication information is for the USA, and (unless stated otherwise) represents the first print edition. The reviews are necessarily limited to those that were available to us ahead of publication. If you are the publisher or author and feel that they do not properly reflect the range of media opinion now available, send us a message with the mainstream reviews that you would like to see added.
Any "Author Information" displayed below reflects the author's biography at the time this particular book was published.
Jaroslav Kalfař, born in the Czech Republic, immigrated to the Unites States at the age of fifteen. He is the author of the critically acclaimed debut Spaceman of Bohemia, a finalist for the Arthur C. Clarke Award that was translated into fifteen languages and is being made into a major motion picture starring Adam Sandler and two-time Oscar nominee Carey Mulligan. Kalfař holds an MFA from New York University and lives in Brooklyn.
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