The Owl's Mirror

Book excerpt: After his flight to Calgary, Canada, suddenly ends in a fiery crash, fifty-eight-year-old Tony Parker is rescued by a stranger. Shaken, but with few injuries, Tony is shocked when he looks in the mirror and stares into the face of a teenager. But the biggest shock is yet to come when Tony is told he has died and is now living in an alternate world. Introducing himself as Max, the stranger announces that Tony is now residing in a secular afterlife rumoured to be built from memory where all the regulars still have a debt to pay. Populated by characters such as Marlene Dietrich, Mata Hari, Charles Ponzi, and Mozart, who often repeat blunders made during their lifetimes, the world is ruled by an integration council assembled to deal with problem migrants such as Tony. As Tony attempts to acclimate to his new home, he is paired with Sebastian Melmoth, also known as Oscar Wilde, who becomes his mentor assigned to guide him through adventurous mayhem barely held together by con artist Till Eulenspiegel. The Owl's Mirror is the compelling tale of one man's whimsical journey through a strange and nonsensical afterlife.