An Unexpected Afterlife
(Dry Bones Society)
By Dan Sofer
Paperback Amazon.com $14.95

Reviewed by Jennia Ganit Chodorov

Excuse my staggering there just now. I admit I'm a bit wobbly and out of whack after reading An Unexpected Afterlife by Dan Sofer.

Truly, I don't recall ever having a reading experience like this one, which opens with a dead guy finding himself naked on the Mount of Olives.

In the pursuit of his previous life, he encounters additional souls with a similar “unexpected development”.

Fortunately, the rabbi who buried him recognizes his existence and takes him in, since his wife and partner kick him out of his own home. Will he be able to get his life back?

Every hour of every day brings turns and twists. It's hard to put the book down in anticipation of what happens next to Moshe Karlin and his unexpected ‘soulmates’. Incidentally, they share an intriguing mark of identification…

A parallel story of a self-proclaimed Elijah the Prophet on a motorbike here to declare the age of redemption appears in alternate chapters and heightens anticipation.

True, included are some colorful descriptions, like “unbeknownst to him, a grandmother-sized asteroid hurtled toward the planet at dinosaur extinction speed” and “with a generous sweep of a hairy arm” for charm.

Bible sources are quoted, sages consulted, criminals involved, but the saga of how this will all evolve continues. The results are fascinating.

If you aren't already running to get a copy of this extraordinary reading experience, then I have done you an injustice. But I'm still not giving the plot away. No more spoilers. You've got to read it to see for yourself.

Note: "An Unexpected Afterlife" recently won a silver medal at the 2017 Readers' Favorite Book Awards.