Life Events follows Evelyn, a thirty-seven-year-old woman on the verge of divorce and consumed by anxiety about losing everyone she loves. Restless and unmoored, she spends her days driving California freeways until she discovers a group of “exit guides” who help terminally ill people plan a conscious, compassionate death.
Drawn into their world, Evelyn trains to become an exit guide and begins working with clients whose lives and stories challenge her own numbness. Daphne, a dying woman still fiercely alive; Lawrence, an aging porn producer; and Daniel, a client she’s dangerously drawn to, each force Evelyn to confront the grief and regret she has long buried.
As she travels through the American Southwest to an afterlife convention to deepen her “death education,” Evelyn must finally face her complicated past, including her relationship with her alcoholic father, and question the choices that have left her feeling stuck.
Darkly humorous and emotionally sharp, Life Events explores loneliness, mortality, and the possibility of finding connection and meaning in unexpected places.
Themes and appeal
- Explores grief, mortality, and healing with candour and wit
- Character-driven contemporary fiction set in California and the Southwest
- Blends dark humour with an intimate portrait of midlife crisis
