I returned to Sum last December as part of my rereading month. The collection includes forty short stories that all imagine various versions of the afterlife. In terms of simply telling the idea of each story I can think of few books better than this, but at some point between my first time and this reread my preferences drifted toward fiction that is more about its characters than its plot.
Sum by David Eagleman (December 2019)
My book notes from this work were spare (alert, I note and briefly describe the five stories I reread in my notes, though I don't see anything resembling a spoiler) but one of my comments did jump out to me almost a year later, which said that people would better understand God if they ignored the guesses of their ancestors. I think this idea sums up the book quite nicely - these stories bring some much-needed imagination to the eternal question of the afterlife, and Eagleman brings the vision to life throughout Sum's forty tales.
Readers who are on the fence about this book can check out this excerpt from the author's site. It's quite a coincidence that this story is the one he posted, for it's the one I remembered from the first time; it will forever change the way you look at a street named after some long-dead local legend.
TOA Rating: Three pearly gates out of four.
