The Death and Life of Zebulon Finch, Volume One: At the Edge of Empire

by Daniel Kraus Narrated by Kirby Heyborne

Overview

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.

Editorial Reviews

DECEMBER 2015 - AudioFile

In 1896, small-time criminal Zebulon Finch, 17 years old, is murdered. Seventeen minutes later he awakens from death, utterly confused. Narrator Kirby Heyborne is wonderful as Zebulon, who is destined to walk the earth for eternity. What has Zebulon done to justify such punishment? In Volume 1 of his autobiography, Zebulon reveals his life up to his murder—and after. Zebulon’s first-person point of view allows for some comedy, and Heyborne nails it. Whether he’s being sarcastic or tender, sexy or icy, he always delivers fine descriptions of ordinary people, historic events, and the famous and infamous characters Zebulon encounters during his 200 years on earth. The writing is crisp, if oddly disquieting, and Heyborne is impressive as Zebulon casts his acerbic eye upon the world. S.J.H. © AudioFile 2015, Portland, Maine

Publishers Weekly

08/03/2015
In this morbidly fascinating story, first in a two-book saga about a young man who refuses to stay dead, Kraus (Scowler) deconstructs the idea of the bildungsroman. Zebulon Finch is born in Chicago in 1879, murdered in 1896, and inexplicably reanimated 17 minutes later as a walking dead man without the need for food, drink, or sleep. In a verbose, grandiose manner, Zebulon shares the details of his exploits and misadventures over the next few decades, and hundreds of pages. As he endures the life of a traveling sideshow attraction, suffers the horrors of combat during WWI, ekes out a living during Prohibition, and falls prey to the seductive charms of pre-WWII Hollywood, he drops in and out of contact with a motley cast of characters, including his daughter. Zebulon’s lack of motivation leads to a meandering, dismal narrative filled with dire insights into the futility of life and the dark side of human nature, where even the most innocent end up corrupted and ruined. Zebulon himself describes it best when he labels his adventures “a fable without a discernible moral.” Ages 14–up. Agent: Richard Abate, 3 Arts Entertainment. (Oct.)

School Library Connection

"This is a book for readers who want to sink in and stay awhile."

The Children's Bulletin

"It’s a splendid, poetic, ambitious undertaking, and the significant page count is put to good use, with Kraus fear- lessly weaving gore, love, philosophy, and social justice issues into one sharp whole."

Horror Drive-In

Daniel Kraus achieves the task of delivering a crackling good story with exquisite writing every time he publishes a book . . . but he has outdone himself with The Death and Life of Zebulon Finch. This is an extraordinary book.

Victoria Schwab

Strange and marvelous and funny and dark—I didn’t want it to end. Zebulon Finch is one of a kind.

Andrew Smith

Wild, intense, creepy, gross, and impeccably written.

Michael Cart

Kraus’s work betrays prodigies of imagination. His flamboyant elocution is the greatest exercise in sustained voice since M. T. Anderson’s Octavian Nothing.

Zac Brewer

An absolutely sweeping tale of brilliance that drowns its reader in an intoxicating tale of death and degradation, with an absolutely masterful ending. Kraus has a beautifully twisted mind.

Entertainment Weekly

Kraus’s globe-trotting dead kid is by turns cavalier, playful, and thoughtful, and his singular voice—a debonair turn-of-the-century murderer-turned-victim—is utterly riveting.” Grade: A

Booklist

"Taking on the big questions of the meaning of life, the purpose of death, and good versus evil, this first half of a giant-size epic skillfully blends historical fiction, dark humor, and horror to push readers right to the brink."

Rick Yancey

Fiction, like any art, can be divided between the living and the dead. THE DEATH AND LIFE OF ZEBULON FINCH is unequivocally and furiously among the former. A splendidly rendered, macabre picaresque, muscular and tender, imaginative and grotesque, cynical yet deeply moving. I was appalled one moment and laughing the next. Don't be fooled by the premise. This tale may be told by a dead man, but what's rendered here is life itself in all of life's absurd glory.

School Library Journal

09/01/2015
Gr 8 Up—Finch, a teenage runaway, is murdered in 1896—about 50 pages into this behemoth of a novel, which proceeds through his inexplicable reanimation and well into the 20th century. He's not fully alive, but he cannot die and, thus, he is a Zelig-like participant in matters as consequential as World War I, Prohibition, and the Great Depression. Kraus's fascination with decaying, rotting human flesh, as readers of Rotters (Delacorte, 2011), his novel about father and son grave robbers, will remember, returns here. His descriptive powers are on full display, as Finch's body doesn't hold together very well. Then there is the author's prodigious vocabulary, which will have many searching for the definitions of such words as voussoir, sulcus, lansquenet, gasconade, and the like. Readers will not be comforted in knowing that this is merely the first installment of Finch's story. It's possible that this cliff-hanger ending will provide an excuse for Finch's lengthy, unattractive existence, but another 600 pages of reading might prove to be an insurmountable obstacle to all but the most motivated. VERDICT A hefty volume for fans of historical fiction with an undead twist.—Miriam Lang Budin, Chappaqua Library, NY

DECEMBER 2015 - AudioFile

In 1896, small-time criminal Zebulon Finch, 17 years old, is murdered. Seventeen minutes later he awakens from death, utterly confused. Narrator Kirby Heyborne is wonderful as Zebulon, who is destined to walk the earth for eternity. What has Zebulon done to justify such punishment? In Volume 1 of his autobiography, Zebulon reveals his life up to his murder—and after. Zebulon’s first-person point of view allows for some comedy, and Heyborne nails it. Whether he’s being sarcastic or tender, sexy or icy, he always delivers fine descriptions of ordinary people, historic events, and the famous and infamous characters Zebulon encounters during his 200 years on earth. The writing is crisp, if oddly disquieting, and Heyborne is impressive as Zebulon casts his acerbic eye upon the world. S.J.H. © AudioFile 2015, Portland, Maine

Kirkus Reviews

2015-07-15
In 1897, Zebulon Finch, a 17-year-old who abandoned his wealthy family in favor of Chicago gang violence, is murdered—but it's 17 minutes later, when he awakens as a sort of animated cadaver, that his misadventures and tormented life really begin. This first volume of Mr. Finch's memoir, composed as he is willingly interred in the depths of the foundation of the World Trade Center as it is erected in New York City, spans his birth to the bombing of Pearl Harbor. Whether he is starring in a patent-medicine show, serving as a Harvard professor's experimental subject, participating in World War I trench warfare, or acting as a Hollywood starlet's bizarre sexual toy, Mr. Finch is always quick to remind readers that his own egoism and compulsive behaviors are the root of the pattern of his miserable existence. He has an unerring ability to align himself with those most eager to destroy him, while often mistreating those who offer him kindness. Kraus' careful prose gifts Mr. Finch with a voice that retains a sheen of elegance even as it repulses readers with macabre imagery. And still, when his occasional efforts at reform fail, Mr. Finch becomes an oddly pitiable character. Skillful prose creates a strangely engaging narrative voice, but the continuous cycle of possible redemption followed by failure and loss of hope becomes repetitive over the course of 650 pages—and this is just Part 1. (Horror. 14 & up)

Product Details

BN ID:	2940171177010
Publisher:	Simon & Schuster
Publication date:	10/27/2015
Series:	The Death and Life of Zebulon Finch , #1
Edition description:	Unabridged

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