RaveThe New York Times Book Review\"In the first quarter of the book I was held back from investing too much in the story because it seemed as if the metaphysical rug was about to be pulled out from under us. What kept drawing me in, however, was Pierce’s clear prose and fine eye for emotional detail ... Pierce is brilliant at painting an entire life — encompassing passion, missed opportunities, tragedy — in a few pages ... He also isn’t afraid to pose the biggest questions: How do we deal with loss? What are the limits and possibilities of love? What is the nature of time? Jim and Annie, in pursuit of answers, track down Zinker and her \'reunion machine,\' which promises to unite the living and the dead. In The Afterlives, Pierce has worked a similar magic, connecting us to fictional characters who seem, somehow, 100 percent real.\
