Hello, everyone! First of all, I'm sorry about the book I used for this purpose, since this is the first topic I open here and I couldn't find a better way to do so. I just chose a book that I think matches the question I want to pose here. Please, if there is a better way to ask about an unknown book, kindly move this thread to where it should be, and apologies!
I finally decided to ask for help about a book I read many years ago when I was a teenager and that I am totally unable to identify now :__D Hoping there is at least another soul here who has read it too!
I'm looking for a novel that was translated into Spanish (the language I read it in), which I read sometime between roughly 2006 and 2015 probably. I believe it was originally published sometime between the late 1990s and the early 2010s. The author's name sounded Middle Eastern to me at the time—possibly Arabic, Turkish, Iranian, or maybe even Israeli.
The protagonist (I believe a man) dies before the beginning of the novel and wakes up in the afterlife. The afterlife isn't portrayed as heaven or hell, but as a modern city with apartment buildings, neighborhoods... Or so I remember. Every deceased person is assigned an apartment. I vaguely remember that the buildings or floors were somehow organized according to a date (possibly the person's birth date or date of death).
The dead can move freely around the city. New arrivals kept showing up, and people who have been there longer welcome and help them settle in.
At some point in the story, the protagonist temporarily returns to the world of the living to discover how he died. I believe he eventually learns that he was murdered, or that his death had been planned. I also remember an important scene in a hospital, where he witnesses something involving someone very close to him (possibly his wife or partner) and feels deeply betrayed.
The Spanish edition had a light-colored cover, in beige or sepia tones, and I think it featured the silhouette or profile of a person's face. The novel was fairly long—probably around 400 pages or more—and had a literary/philosophic rather than horror tone. Although it deals with the afterlife, it felt grounded and realistic, not really supernatural or religious.
Does this ring a bell for anyone? I'd be forever grateful if I could find the novel again, I'd like to re-read it and at least it would feel like a stone fell of my chest!
Afterworlds
discussion
I finally decided to ask for help about a book I read many years ago when I was a teenager and that I am totally unable to identify now :__D Hoping there is at least another soul here who has read it too!
I'm looking for a novel that was translated into Spanish (the language I read it in), which I read sometime between roughly 2006 and 2015 probably. I believe it was originally published sometime between the late 1990s and the early 2010s. The author's name sounded Middle Eastern to me at the time—possibly Arabic, Turkish, Iranian, or maybe even Israeli.
The protagonist (I believe a man) dies before the beginning of the novel and wakes up in the afterlife. The afterlife isn't portrayed as heaven or hell, but as a modern city with apartment buildings, neighborhoods... Or so I remember. Every deceased person is assigned an apartment. I vaguely remember that the buildings or floors were somehow organized according to a date (possibly the person's birth date or date of death).
The dead can move freely around the city. New arrivals kept showing up, and people who have been there longer welcome and help them settle in.
At some point in the story, the protagonist temporarily returns to the world of the living to discover how he died. I believe he eventually learns that he was murdered, or that his death had been planned. I also remember an important scene in a hospital, where he witnesses something involving someone very close to him (possibly his wife or partner) and feels deeply betrayed.
The Spanish edition had a light-colored cover, in beige or sepia tones, and I think it featured the silhouette or profile of a person's face. The novel was fairly long—probably around 400 pages or more—and had a literary/philosophic rather than horror tone. Although it deals with the afterlife, it felt grounded and realistic, not really supernatural or religious.
Does this ring a bell for anyone? I'd be forever grateful if I could find the novel again, I'd like to re-read it and at least it would feel like a stone fell of my chest!
Thanks in advance!