| Elsewhere | |
|---|---|
Book cover |
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| Author(s) | Gabrielle Zevin |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Genre(s) | Fantasy |
| Publisher | Farrar Straus Giroux |
| Publication date | 2005 |
| Media type | Print (Hardback and Paperback) |
| Pages | 288 |
Elsewhere is a 2005 young adult fantasy novel by Gabrielle Zevin.
Contents |
Elsewhere tells the story of a fifteen year old girl, Elizabeth 'Liz' Hall, who dies in a bicycle accident and wakes up to find herself traveling on a boat called the SS Nile. There, she meets a girl who had been shot and a famous person who had died of a drug overdose. After watching her own funeral, Liz realizes that she is truly dead. Soon afterward, she and the other passengers arrive in what is known as "Elsewhere". She meets her grandmother, Betty, who had died before Liz was born, and Liz begins to live with her. In Elsewhere, Liz learns everyone ages backwards from the day they died to the day they turn 7 days old, and then they are sent back to Earth to be reincarnated as a baby.
Liz misses her life on Earth, and becomes obsessed with watching her family and friends through Observation Decks, she tried to talk to her family a few times, which she gets caught and meets Owen. She is depressed, and sees no reason to do anything since she is dead, but in time she makes new friends in Elsewhere who help her come to terms with the fact that she has died. She can talk in canine, which she at first was unaware of.
Gradually, she learns that a life lived backwards is not much different to a life lived forwards.
Elsewhere has been translated into sixteen other languages.
The book was nominated for a 2006 Quill award, won the Borders Original Voices Award, and was a selection of the Barnes & Noble Book Club.[1] The book was also included on several "Best of" Lists including School Library Journal, Horn Book Magazine, Booklist Magazine, Kirkus Reviews, Amazon.com, and the American Library Association Notable Children's Book list among others. It has also won several awards abroad: in Germany, the Lufti (Bronze) and the Ulmer Unke, and in the United Kingdom, the Sheffield Children's Book Prize for Longer Novels, the Stockport Children's Book Award, and it was longlisted for the Carnegie Medal.