A modern queer tragedy about a pilot’s last words, an interrupted celebration, and the fear of losing everything. “Utterly engrossing. Coen is a hero for our era, darkly struggling amid the aftershocks of loss, but doing so with dignity, humanity, and passion.” — Timothy Taylor, author of The Rule of Stephens When the airplane piloted by Elias Santos crashes one week before their wedding … Elias Santos crashes one week before their wedding day, Coen Caraway loses the man he loves and the illusion of happiness he has worked so hard to create. The only thing Elias leaves behind is a recording of his final words, and even Coen is baffled by the cryptic message.
Numb with grief, he takes refuge on the Mexican island that was meant to host their wedding. But as fragments of the past come to the surface in the aftermath of the tragedy, Coen is forced to question everything he thought he knew about Elias and their life together. Beneath his flawed memory lies the truth about Elias — and himself.
From the damp concrete of Vancouver to the spoiled shores of Mexico, After Elias weaves the past with the present to tell a story of doubt, regret, and the fear of losing everything.
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Most authors, especially debuts, go to great lengths to fully describe the physical characteristics of their characters and the location where the story takes place. Yet, Eddy Boudel Tan seems to sidestep these descriptions but never leaves the reader guessing. He gives you everything you need to know with the emotion his words instill.
Tan’s characters are fully formed and flawed, and you will (at least I did) alternate between loving and hating them. This story is beautiful and sad, and you will laugh and cry, and really, who can ask for more?
One of the saddest and most touching, heartfelt books I’ve read in a long time.
This beautifully written novel is a layered story of grief and pain, love and wisdom told with tenderness, infused with Aztec mythology which made the reading even richer. It’s a page-turner you don’t want to miss. The puzzle of Elias and Coen kept me glued, surprising me, and ultimately bringing a satisfied sigh at the end, holding the book close to my chest, digesting Tan’s wisdom. Another fabulous 2020 debut.
This story ended up being so much more than I expected. It is not meant to be your Happily Ever After romance story. While it is a work of fiction, the thoughts the author brings us are thoughts many of us might think after a tragedy such as this. What were the people on board thinking? What were the pilots thinking? Could it have been prevented? Was it on purpose? If so, what brought them to that point in their lives. Coen and Elias seem to be happy on the surface, even to Coen. But when he looks back through flashbacks in the story, he begins to sense that not all was as it was. Thus begins Coen’s journey to find out the why of the accident if he can and to also find Elias’ roots. Coen has a personal journey to go on as well with his own mental health and his connections to his family. Is it a depressing story? To some extent yes, but there is beauty in the sad and there is faith and fate and so much more.
This book is so hard to review because I adored it, but I’m not sure how to come up with a description that does it justice. I could say that the premise is unique, in that days before Coen’s wedding his fiancé dies as the pilot in a plane crash, taking down 314 passengers with him, and Coen is left dealing with the aftermath and swirling questions as to whether the crash was deliberate.
Or I could mention that Eddy Boudel Tan’s writing style is lyrical and evokes all the senses, and he has a unique ability to bring us into the story and kept me riveted, accompanying and supporting Coen in each step as he discovers revelation after revelation on the truth of what happened.
I could say it’s about the journey that is grief and coming to terms with our past life decisions, and those of our loved ones. Or that this book is a study of the lies we tell ourselves in relationships, and of what depression feels like from the inside.
I could say that it’s beautifully written, with a dream-like quality, incorporating elements of mysticism and magical realism, and does a great job of absorbing Mexican lore and cultural elements and a relationship with death that are not often understood.
I could stay that it’s fascinating that Eddy Boudel Tan takes such a premise and build to a place that ultimately left me hopeful. Although it deals with grief, to me it wasn’t a sad book. It is however, a perfect example of a novel only one unique person could write, and how the same idea, written by fifty people, will create fifty different books. The author has created something special, beautiful and inspiring.
Instead, what I will simply state is this is one of my favorite novels in years and as a fellow writer, I’m in awe of its author, who didn’t just create a story which drew me in, but a mood, finding poignant beauty and hope in the process of grief.
This is one of the most beautifully-written books I’ve read recently. It’s also a genre-breaker, gracefully combining a fractured romance with elements of a thriller and psychological drama. Coen Caraway loses the man he loves and the illusion of happiness he has worked so hard to create one week before his wedding to Elias Santos. The only thing Elias leaves behind is a recording of his cryptic final words. Coen decides to stay on the Mexican island where he’s gone to supervise the final details of their special day. Rather than cancel the event, he decides to turn the occasion into a celebration of his lover’s life.
Interestingly, there is little physical description of the characters or the setting, but the narrative is so richly atmospheric that those details aren’t missed. The prose is rich, poetic, lyrical, and evocative. Eddy Boudel Tan’s characters are authentic emotionally and thoroughly flawed, particularly the protagonist, Coen, and his lover, Elias, who seen only in retrospect. Coen’s grief is genuine and complicated, brimming with his fears of never again attaining love or the proverbial white picket fence. Equally conflicted are his views of Elias as Coen comes to terms with Elias’s death. The novel is sad, beautiful, and haunting.
I received a copy of this book from the author in exchange for an unbiased review.