Of all the books I have had to review, this is decidedly the strangest.
The mystery starts right from the cover. We are never told the author's full name. Then we are told the book was printed in the US. Nevertheless, it is about Malta and about Maltese people.
Then, the story itself is very strange. A middle-aged mother commits suicide. But somehow, her mind still functions and the book is all about what the mind thinks and reasons through long months as the woman, Amy, looks back on her past life and why her depression led her to suicide when she could not forgive herself of a marital infidelity.
She then focuses on her daughter, Marie, who is a model daughter - teaches catechism, is optimistic in her view of life, but was deeply hurt by her mother's depression and suicide. Marie is getting married to a man who is unsuited for her. Yet the marriage goes on, months after Amy's death and the mother can only look while the inevitable happens.
In all this time, contrary to what we are taught, Amy has not yet met her Maker. She must first come to terms with herself and her life, then she must somehow get her daughter to come to terms with her life too and her marriage. First, the daughter must break the link which binds her to her mother and let her mother move on.
The book is innovative as long as the reader accepts the underlying premise - that the mind continues to reason long after the body has deteriorated. Then the afterlife becomes a series of flashbacks on the life that has been, together with a realization of what went wrong and this realization itself is a healing experience. But what has healing to do when the life is already over and there is no chance of conversion?
At least, the dead mother does not try to interfere with her daughter's life, which is what all ghost stories are about. Worse than purgatory or hell, her punishment is to see the impact of her life and death on her relatives.
The dearly departed, at least according to this book, has an uncanny ability not just to look back at episodes from her own life, but also to understand what others are thinking, especially her own daughter she loves so dearly.
But let's get real. This is a novel, granted, but the teaching about afterlife definitely does not include minds remaining active after death. After death no progress can be made, not even the realization of the mistakes committed and repentance expressed.
The doctrine about afterlife, at least in Christian theology, looks on life as lived here on earth, as the only chance we have, with no extra time allowed. Maybe there should have been an extra time, but the fact is there isn't. This is the only life we have.