The Brief History of the Dead

by Kevin Brockmeier

The story takes place in a city where people go after they die and start their lives anew until one day they disappear again. The place is somewhere between life and whatever comes after the limbo they are in for different stretches of time.

One day large numbers of the city's inhabitants start disappearing and the city's edges slowly start to curl in on themselves. As the living that still remembered their deceased friends, family members, neighbors succumb to a virus that wipes out the entire population of the earth, the inhabitants leave the city never to be seen or hurt from again.

The considerably smaller group of inhabitants still left in the diminishing city are connected through one Laura Byrd, who seems to be the only survivor of the deadly virus. The reason she is not infected is her utter isolation in a small camp in the Antarctic, where she was for research purposes. But when her fellow researches fail to return from a trip to another camp they needed to make because they had lost radio contact, she eventually sets off in search of them.

Her death, then, is inevitable, as one is only able to survive in the Antarctic by oneself for so long. As she dies, the city collapses towards its center.

They were passing out their days in a place somewhere between life and death in that drifting stage after the lights went out but before sleep came over them.

The book is at its best when it is simply telling the story. Towards the end, when Mr. Brockmeier starts to philosophize and wanders off into metaphors, it feels slightly strained and weakens the story immensely.

5/10