MIRA
Featuring: Jacob Hargrave; Lucille Hargrave; Harold Hargrave
400 pages ISBN: 0778315339 EAN: 9780778315339 Kindle: B00ATMP806 Hardcover / e-Book Add to Wish List
Lucille and Harold Hargrave lost their eight year old son,
Jacob, in 1966 due to an accidental drowning. Fifty years
later, he has returned to them, and he is still an eight
year old boy. All around the world, the deceased are
returning back to their families. They are not zombies but
are actual flesh and blood individuals. The government
doesn't know what to do with them and not even Lucille and
Harold can agree on what or who Jacob really is. How will
the appearance of THE RETURNED impact their lives and the
small Southern town in which they reside?
THE RETURNED is a deeply moving, haunting tale that asks
readers to ponder how they would respond if someone they
lost could return, if even for a short while. Would you
respond with love and joy to have a second chance to tell
them you loved them or would you react in fear, questioning
their very humanness? Through Lucille and Harold's story, we
explore these possibilities as the country and their town
struggles to find meaning and a response to THE RETURNED.
Lucille and Harold are phenomenal main characters. Jason
Mott does a marvelous job at showing us the love that exists
between them and the heartache that has haunted them since
that awful day in 1966. I love how we see each one of them
step up to defend their son when the world begins turning
against THE RETURNED and groups promoting "The True Living"
emerge. Agent Martin Bellamy, the family's government
liaison throughout the story, is a bit of a mystery and the
author's note at the end puts an interesting perspective on
his character.
Jason Mott's exquisite use of language makes the storyline
of THE RETURNED flow smoothly and beautifully. THE RETURNED
is not an action packed tale but rather is the sort of story
that makes you stop and think about your own losses and
missed opportunities. THE RETURNED is both heartbreaking and
full of love and joy as Jason Mott superbly conveys the
emotional quandary a second chance with a deceased love one
would cause. THE RETURNED is a beautiful tale of life,
loss, and love that haunts the reader long after the last
page is turned.
"Jacob was time out of sync, time more perfect than it
had been. He was life the way it was supposed to be all
those years ago. That's what all the Returned were."
Harold and Lucille Hargrave's lives have been
both joyful and sorrowful in the decades since their only
son, Jacob, died tragically at his eighth birthday party in
1966. In their old age they've settled comfortably into life
without him, their wounds tempered through the grace of
time…. Until one day Jacob mysteriously appears on their
doorstep—flesh and blood, their sweet, precocious child,
still eight years old.
All over the world
people's loved ones are returning from beyond. No one knows
how or why this is happening, whether it's a miracle or a
sign of the end. Not even Harold and Lucille can agree on
whether the boy is real or a wondrous imitation, but one
thing they know for sure: he's their son. As chaos erupts
around the globe, the newly reunited Hargrave family finds
itself at the center of a community on the brink of
collapse, forced to navigate a mysterious new reality and a
conflict that threatens to unravel the very meaning of what
it is to be human.
With spare, elegant prose
and searing emotional depth, award-winning poet Jason Mott
explores timeless questions of faith and morality, love and
responsibility. A spellbinding and stunning debut, The
Returned is an unforgettable story that marks the
arrival of an important new voice in contemporary fiction.
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