Set mostly in a small Southern town In America THE RETURNED by Jason Mott is a story involving both science fiction concepts and real human feelings. The main story is centered on one elderly couple in the town whose long dead little boy, Jacob, comes back mysteriously from the dead at the same time as similar such events are happening all over the world.

Interspersed with short stories from other experiences of this phenomenon around the world the story mostly chronicles the impact on the couple and the reactions of the living to the return of the dead. What would you do if your long dead son returned to you? How would the neighbours react? It also covers the question of what do the authorities do to deal with this incredible situation, with some disturbing insights on mob rule and authoritarian reaction, along with the wonder about what is happening here, where are the dead coming from and what did they experience while they were gone? These questions are all asked along with deeper ones of the human heart like how would we really feel about the situation, about our lives being disrupted by people whose faces we perhaps could barely remember.

Above all, perhaps, it addresses a wish many of us have had, for one last conversation with a departed loved one, and asks the final question; what would you really say?

THE RETURNED is an exceptional first novel and well worth reading.