After the First Death (1979) is a suspense novel for young adults by American author Robert Cormier. The focus is on the complex relationships that develop between the various characters. The novel takes the name from the poem, "A Refusal to Mourn the Death, by Fire, of a Child in London" by Dylan Thomas. It originates from the last line: "After the first death, there is no other." Synopsis After the First Death describes the terrorist hijacking of a summer camp bus full of children. The main characters include Kate, a high school student driving the bus, Miro, one of the terrorists, and Ben, the son of a general holding a senior position in "Inner Delta"; a government anti-terrorism organization. The story is mostly written from the point-of-view of Kate, Miro, and Ben, switching back and forth. Brief sections are told from the perspective of other characters. Plot Odd Chapters The first narrator, Ben Marchand, is a teenager who is the son of a general commanding an anti-terrorism unit. At the commencement of the novel, he is waiting in his room at Castle, his boarding school, for his mother and father to arrive. Reference is made to his having been shot in an incident on a bridge, and his mother occasionally refers to him as "Mark". The incident on the bridge is the event explored in the even-numbered chapters. The perspective switches from Ben to his father, General Mark Marchand, who left his son's room after a brief conversation and came back to find it empty. The general reflects on how he volunteered Ben to deliver a message to the terrorists on the bus. Ben is subsequently wounded and much later, believing himself a coward, commits suicide from another bridge - after the first "death" of the title. The last odd-numbered chapter consists of apparent conversations between Ben and his father, which reveal that the boy is already dead. The general attempts to call back Ben in order to ask for forgiveness for making use of his sensitive son's perceived vulnerability when used as a go-between with the terrorists. They are not actually in Castle but in a mental hospital where the general, broken by guilt, is now apparently a patient. Even Chapters Miro is a terrorist from a foreign country who is also a teenager. He and three other terrorists, Artkin, Antibbe, and Stroll hijack a bus full of