Emil cannot sleep. At all. And his mother sometimes forgets everything — she doesn’t recognize her son and can’t remember her own name. To help her, Emil follows a ritual that must be completed down to the last word.
Together they move to a place where no one knows them — a snow-covered island where they have to live inside a school. One night, in the empty school corridors, the phone rings. Emil picks up the receiver and hears the voice of his brother, who died several years ago: “Help me come back!”
But how do you bring back someone who has died? How do you keep from losing yourself in worlds where the line between possible and impossible is razor-thin, and every mistake can cost a life? What has Emil’s mother truly forgotten? And should he remind her?
The Book of Emil is the new novel byIllarion Pavliuk, author of the bestsellers I See You’re Interested in Darkness, The Fool’s Dance, and White Ash.
