The Regrets

Rachel has noticed the same golden-haired young man at her Brooklyn bus stop for weeks, always gazing off with a melancholy look. When she finally works up the nerve to introduce herself, the connection between them is immediate. Thomas is witty, handsome, mysterious and wise, and he feels like a kindred spirit. There is just one problem: he is dead. Thomas is stuck in a surreal limbo run by bureaucracy. He can't cross over to the afterlife until he finishes a 90-day stay on earth, and during that time he is forbidden to get involved with anyone who is alive, or he will incur what are called regrets. When he and Rachel break the rule anyway, a series of strange and troubling consequences follows. This is Amy Bonnaffons's debut novel. It takes place in a hallucinatory borderland between life and death and combines dark humor with sensuality. Its themes are love between the living and the dead, the power of fantasy, and the difficult work of facing reality.