David is a modest man who works in a bank, lives in a rooming house, enjoys books and quiet walks by the lake. Three months after unexpectedly being fired from his job, he takes a temporary position at a mortuary. And there, sitting alone in the "slumber room" one late afternoon, he sees something that he cannot comprehend, something that no science can explain, something that will force him to question everything he believes in, including himself. After his metaphysical experience, all his relationships change—with his estranged wife, his girlfriend, his mother—and he grudgingly finds himself at the center of a bitter public controversy over the existence of the supernatural.
Reviews
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Reminiscent of Poe's "Tell-Tale Heart," this story begins with manic introspection. A man is trying to decide if he has really experienced a metaphysical event--or if he's going mad. An abrupt switch in point of view from the first person in the opening to third-person narration for the remainder of the story is a bit confusing as there is no pause or warning. But Christopher Price steps up to the storytelling delightfully as the listener delves into protagonist David's life after he witnesses a supernatural occurrence. Price captures the mortuary's crew with aplomb, as well as the doubting townspeople whom David has to deal with after he becomes a local oddity. Listeners who enjoy a modern ghost story will enjoy this. D.L.M. (c) AudioFile 2008, Portland, Maine
About the Author
Alan Lightman is the author of Einstein's Dreams, The Good Benito and The Diagnosis, which was a 2000 National Book Award finalist. His essays, short fiction, and reviews have appeared in a wide variety of publications including The New Yorker, Granta, Harper's, Story, The Atlantic Monthly and The New York Review of Books. An active research scientist in astronomy and physics for two decades, he has also taught both subjects on the faculties of Harvard and MIT.
