Steven L. Peck, Vintage. (112p) ISBN: 9781807840594. Contemporary Fiction, read 05/05/26, Paperback ★★★★☆
A Short Stay in Hell
Picked this up on a whim as it sounded intriguing, and it was a nice short book to try and kick me off reading once more.
Well, Ahura Mazda it is then, the one true god.
Soren Johansson was a faithful practicing Mormon all his life and was expecting his Godhood after death…
Oooops!
After a brief sojourn in the reception room of Hell with others who also were not true believers, and like the others, Soren goes to a hell tailored for him, a library based on Borgés ‘The Library of Babel’ where every possible book that could ever have been and has been written is stored.
The task? To find the book that matches your life story exactly, once you find that you can leave…
But Soren is not alone and the others also have this task, this is where it gets really interesting in reading about how the various individuals and groups cope with this nigh impossible task.
For such a short read there is a hell of a lot packed in about the human condition and behaviours, and would recommend this for it’s concise examination of both. I was fascinated from start to finish and almost missed my stop as I was so engrossed.
Hell is definitely other people.
Wasn’t that one good? I loved it, too. What a fever dream of a novel. I read it months ago, maybe even a year, and it has continued to stick with me.
It was totally unexpected, wonderful read