Aftertime

The novel takes place in aftertime, a place where time and space is irrelevant. Here the two main characters, the mother and deceased teenage son, converse. Neither character can see each other physically, but they share words. In this world the characters are disembodied; however, the mother still lives in the conventional world and is aware of her natural surroundings: trees, birds, cars, sidewalks. When the mother asks what is outside Nikolai’s window, he answers, “a garden of superlative adjectives. A path paved with lively adverbs. Poems without themes. Songs without names. There are ways to live not as a noun, or inside a noun, or among other nouns” (67). In a world created purely from words, it defies the obedient one of physical laws and expectations.

Corner of F— and M—

This is the corner of two streets where the mother would drop off Nikolai each morning...