Strange Bodies

National Book Award finalist Theroux (The Far North) opens this new novel with protagonist and scholar Nicholas Slopen—recently deceased, who is paradoxically now living in another body. The book then unspools into a fascinating tale about how this transformation came about. Revealed is the concept that original text can be used to re-create the consciousness of the author in another body. The person does not even have to be alive if enough information, such as letters or opinions, written by the author exists; thus, writers from the past can even be reanimated. The way in which the narrator deals with the ethical, mechanical, and psychological problems that arise makes this reading experience truly enthralling. The detailed renderings of Slopen's emotions, especially with regard to family and literature, provide an intense and nuanced examination of the plight of being.