It could have been me.Snow whirls around an elevated train platform in Chicago. A distracted woman boards the train, takes her seat, and moments later a fiery explosion rips through the frigid air, tearing the car apart in a horrific attack on the city’s transit system. One life is spared. Twenty-two are lost. A year later, Autumn Manning can’t remember the day of the bombing and she is … of the bombing and she is tormented by grief—by guilt. Twelve months of the question constantly echoing. Why? Why? Why? Searching for answers, she haunts the lives of the victims, unable to rest.
Paul Elliott lost his wife in the train bombing and wants to let the dead rest in peace, undisturbed and unable to cause more pain for his loved ones. He wants normalcy for his twelve-year-old daughter and young son, to see them move beyond the heartbreak. But when the Elliotts and Autumn are unexpectedly forced together, he fears she’ll bring more wreckage in her wake.
In Life After, Katie Ganshert’s most complex and unforgettable novel yet, the stirring prose and authentic characters pose questions of truth, goodness, and ultimate purpose in this emotionally resonant tale.
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Wow! There are some books you love. Then there are others you wish you could talk your friends and family into reading so you can discuss it—this is one of those books.
Award-winning author Katie Ganshert takes her writing to a new level as she masterfully tackles issues of fear and faith and family in this story of two people who meet in the aftermath of a train wreck. Outstanding.
Loved this read!
I loved her beautiful and painful journey through trauma and the amazing people she met along the way.
Great book!
A bold novel dealing with tragedy, loss, and survival with a twist on the question ‘why’. This time, the sole survivor of a terrorist attack wanders through ‘life after’, looking for the answer to why she alone survived. Beautifully crafted, the novel never stoops to platitudes, but rather explores what healing looks like in the aftermath of unspeakable horror.
Autumn Manning was the only survivor of a horrific tragedy, named Tragedy on the Tracks. Her memory of events prior to the explosion are lost. She feels so much guilt-for being the only person to survive. Her life is forever changed. Her family all worries about her. She now has an ex-fiance. She questions God. How could a good good God allow this?
Reece, a twelve year old girl whose mother lost her life that day in that tragedy, is writing letters to Autumn. As a result, Autumn meets her father, Paul and her little brother, Tate. This story had me feeling so much empathy for the family. There are also secrets there, which I will not reveal to those who have yet to read the book.
The one year anniversary of the tragedy has just occurred, and Reece very much wants a tribute done. Autumn interviews someone from the family of each of the deceased. Their stories of their loved one is so amazing! Paul continues to put Autumn off on interviewing him about his wife. Reece is determined to talk, on camera, about her mother.
Very well written story.
I was given a free ecopy to read by the publisher WaterBrook Multnomah and Netgalley in exchange for my honest review.
A year ago, Autumn Manning was the sole survivor of a train crash that killed twenty-two people in Chicago. She still hasn’t recovered. She has nightmares. She hasn’t returned to work. She can barely leave her apartment—except to tend the graves of the twenty-two victims. She’s alive, but not living.
Psychologist and marriage counsellor Paul Elliott lost his wife in the crash. Life has gone on, propelled by the need to raise his two children. It’s not easy, especially as his daughter is twelve and acting out. Then Reese disappears, and Paul finds her in the last place he’d expect: Autumn Manning’s apartment.
Autumn and Paul begin an awkward friendship that begins with Reese but builds as circumstances bring them together. They both still need to heal, and the irony is that they heal through each other, and through a project inspired by Reese.
Life After is strong in every way.
An intriguing concept. A solid plot. Flawed and realistic characters. Excellent writing. A strong Christian message, but without being overwhelming. The story hints at secrets and lies, then reveals them at exactly the right time for maximum impact.
I definitely recommend Life After for readers looking for deeper Christian women’s fiction.
Thanks to WaterBrook and NetGalley for providing a free ebook for review.
I requested a copy from the publisher and now I’m faced with the impossible task of reviewing this book. I’m completely astounded by the level of maturity with which this book was written.
Autumn Manning is a survivor. She was in a train explosion that killed 22 other people. She has much to be thankful, but Autumn is haunted by guilt and responsibility – not for the bombing, of course, just for being alive and not doing anything about it. People expect her to carry on, it has been one year. Still, Autumn can’t – she’s overwhelmed and ready to snap.
Until one day she meets Reese Elliot – daughter of Vivian Elliott who died on the train. Reese Elliot who’s been sending her letters for a year and who’s the last person Autumn wants to get mixed up with. There’s nothing tentative about their friendship, Reese latches right on and Autumn can’t help but feel compelled by this twelve-year-old girl who doesn’t seem to smile much and who lost her mother – a grief Autumn knows very well.
Who is tentative about this friendship and down right against it is Reese’s father, Paul. He’s trying to keep going as if life could go back to normal as if he hasn’t been carrying a weight of a thousand trains on his back as if he doesn’t know life can be changed in an instant. What he holds on tight to is the fact that even though his wife’s death might have been the worst thing ever to happen to his family, he knows deep abounding hurt is just waiting around the corner to damage even more his kid’s lives. So Paul is determined to protect them, and that includes keeping them far from Autumn Manning.
But when his daughter starts smiling again, when hope seems to be tentatively making its way around his heart, how can Paul continue living in a pretended “normal” when he’s coming to know the real thing again.
There is a lot at stake and both Paul and Autumn will have to come to terms with much more than what happened because of Tragedy On the Tracks. Two broken people – one who is determined to remember what happened and the other who is determined to forget. Might not seem the most suitable pair to help one another put their pieces back together or to offer decent advice. But what if broken lives are stronger when brought together? When choosing to invest in one another?
Trust me when I say this book is worth reading. One of those stories you can’t stop thinking about and imagining the character’s lives even after you turned the last page.
If I haven’t convinced you yet, I leave one of my favorite quotes: again, and again <3
In her latest novel, Katie Ganshert crafts an unforgettable tale that delves into humanity’s response to tragedy, drawing you into the story with its poignant first line: “We rarely know when death will come.” Life After is a heart wrenching look at the effects of tragedy and the beauty that can come from it. Autumn Manning is the sole survivor of a train bombing that took the lives of 22 others. One year after the tragedy that changed her life, she still is haunted by the lives that were lost and one burning question–why her? Why did she survive and not someone else? While trying to remember and honor the other victims, Autumn is forced to work alongside Paul Elliot, the man whose wife she was mistakenly identified as after the accident. Attempting to lay the past to rest and heal their broken hearts, they must both confront their shortcomings and overcome their need for answers, instead resting in the comfort of the God who controls everything. A powerful story told in Ganshert’s poetic prose, Life After is a beautiful look at our response to tragedy and answers our all-consuming why with a who–a God who can shine the light of hope into the darkest night.
“But maybe she’d been asking the wrong question. Maybe comfort wasn’t to be found in the ‘why.’ Maybe comfort was found in the ‘who.’ A God who wept.”
Just as Autumn has entered and sat down in the elevated train car in Chicago a bomb goes off and the story takes hold. Autumn is the only survivor of the bombing which begins Life After. A story of grief, survival and faith which brings the survivor closer to the victim’s grieving families and friends. One of the main story lines of the book is the growing friendship between Autumn and the family of one of the victims. Trust is one of the key components throughout the book and this ties in smartly with the box dropped in the prologue. I read this heart-breaking and uplifting book in one day.