title: The Brief History of the Dead: A novel
author:  Kevin Brockmeier 
description: <I>Starred Review.</i> A deadly virus has spread rapidly across Earth, effectively cutting off wildlife specialist Laura Byrd at her crippled Antarctica research station from the rest of the world. Meanwhile, the planet's dead populate "the city," located on a surreal Earth-like alternate plane, but their afterlives depend on the memories of the living, such as Laura, back on home turf. Forced to cross the frozen tundra, Laura free-associates to keep herself alert; her random memories work to sustain a plethora of people in the city, including her best friend from childhood, a blind man she'd met in the street, her former journalism professor and her parents. Brockmeier (<I>The Truth About Celia</I>) follows all of them with sympathy, from their initial, bewildered arrival in the city to their attempts to construct new lives. He meditates throughout on memory's power and resilience, and gives vivid shape to the city, a place where a giraffe's spots might detach and hover about a street conversation among denizens. He simultaneously keeps the stakes of Laura's struggle high: as she fights for survival, her parents find a second chance for love&mdash;but only if Laura can keep them afloat. Other subplots are equally convincing and reflect on relationships in a beautiful, delicate manner; the book seems to say that, in a way, the virus has already arrived. <I>(Feb.)</I> <BR>Copyright &copy; Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
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  Stuart MacBride
  
  BIRTHDAYS FOR THE DEAD AND A SONG FOR THE DYING: 2 BOOKS BUNDLE
  
  ![](Images/image00536.jpeg)
  
  Copyright
  
   _Harper_
  
  An imprint of HarperCollins _Publishers_
  
  1 London Bridge Street
  
  London, SE1 9GF
  
  [www.harpercollins.co.uk](http://www.harpercollins.co.uk)
  
  First published by HarperCollins _Publishers_ 2015
  
  Copyright © Stuart MacBride 2015
  
  Stuart MacBride asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this
  work.
  
  A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
  
  This novel is entirely a work of fiction. Any references to real people,
  living or dead, real events, businesses, organizations and localities are
  intended only to give the fiction a sense of reality and authenticity. All
  names, characters and incidents are either the product of the author’s
  imagination or are used fictitiously, and their resemblance, if any, to real-
  life counterparts is entirely coincidental.
  
  All rights reserved under International and Pan-American C