FICTION

I'm Still Here (Je suis là)

by Clélie Avit
Grand Central. Aug. 2016. 304p. tr. from French by Lucy Foster. ISBN 9781455537624. $25; ebk. ISBN 9781455537617. F
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Elsa has been in a coma for several months following a mountaineering accident. She has been able to hear the world around her for weeks but can't make this known to the people with her. Her coma appears irreversible, so she has been moved out of the way and is now rarely visited by anyone save her sister and the nighttime cleaning staff. Elsa is hungry for interaction, so when Thibault stumbles into her room in an attempt to avoid his dysfunctional family's most recent trip to the hospital, she's overjoyed. Thibault, looking for escape, finds in Elsa a perfect outlet, and he begins to suspect that Elsa may be listening. When doctors suggest that it's time to pull the plug on Elsa, Thibault will have to convince her dubious family that she is awake—if only she would wake up.
VERDICT Some readers might find the love story itself incomprehensible, but on the whole it this is a harmless, cute tale about two people who find a connection across a seemingly impossible barrier. Older fans of Gayle Forman's If I Stay may want to give this one a try.
Reviewed by Mara Dabrishus, Ursuline Coll. Lib., Pepper Pike, OH , Jul 29, 2016
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