The Death and Life of Zebulon Finch Books

From the coauthor of the New York Times bestselling The Shape of Water comes the “utterly riveting” ( Entertainment Weekly ) tale of a murdered teen who is resurrected to walk the earth for more than a century. May 7, 1896. Dusk. A swaggering seventeen-year-old gangster named Zebulon Finch is gunned down by the shores of Lake Michigan. But after mere minutes in the void, he is mysteriously resurrected. His second life will be nothing like his first. Zebulon’s new existence begins as a sideshow attraction in a traveling medicine show. From there he will be poked and prodded by a scientist obsessed with mastering the secrets of death. He will fight in the trenches of World War I. He will run from his nightmares—and from poverty—in Depression-era New York City. And he will become the companion of the most beautiful woman in Hollywood. Love, hate, hope, and horror—Zebulon finds them. But will he ever find redemption? “Fearlessly weaving gore, love, philosophy, and social justice issues into one sharp whole” ( BCCB ), The Death and Life of Zebulon Finch, Volume One: At the Edge of Empire is the epic saga of what it means to be human in a world so often lacking in humanity.

From the coauthor of the New York Times bestselling The Shape of Water comes the second and final book in the “utterly riveting” ( Entertainment Weekly ) epic tale about a murdered teen who is resurrected to walk the earth for more than a century. Zebulon Finch has faced more violence, lust, and heartbreak than any other seventeen-year-old in history. But nothing can prepare him for what is coming next. Half a century has passed since Zebulon Finch was gunned down and then inexplicably resurrected to experience a second life. Picking up his tale where he left off, Zebulon heads to Nazi Germany on a top-secret mission. From there he escapes to the shiny new world of the suburbs—a tidy neighborhood hiding dark secrets. He will exchange the pains of this world for what he believes will be peace among the stars. He will march for social change all the way to Woodstock, go raving mad in the desert, and finally exit from humanity the only way he knows how. We first met Zebulon sealed in a tomb beneath the World Trade Center—might he yet crawl from the rubble to discover a different America? Enthralling and gut-wrenching, The Death and Life of Zebulon Finch, Volume Two: Empire Decayed is the conclusion to the epic saga of one young man’s journey down the long road to redemption.

From the coauthor of the New York Times bestselling The Shape of Water comes the “utterly riveting” ( Entertainment Weekly ) complete life—and death—of Zebulon Finch, now available in a magnificent hardcover boxed set. At the end of the twentieth century, seventeen-year-old Zebulon Finch is voluntarily being sealed into a tomb far beneath the World Trade Center. After a long, grueling journey across American history, he is determined to fade away into the darkness at last—but not before setting the record straight on his infamous “life” once and for all. So he begins to write his story, starting in 1896—the year he was shot to death on a beach by a fellow Chicago gangster. Zebulon spent a mere twenty minutes in the void before waking up to find that his corpse still lived. After being swept into Lake Michigan, hooked by a fisherman, and sold to a traveling medicine show, he began to live a second life quite unlike the first. As decade after decade passes, Zebulon slowly comes to understand the meaning of life even as everyone he knows succumbs to death—friends, enemies, and lovers alike. Grand, thrilling, heartbreaking, funny, and ambitious at every turn, The Death & Life of Zebulon Finch is not just one young man’s story. Rather, it is the story of America itself, the story of what it means to be human in a world so often lacking in humanity.